MAE associate professor Yongjie Hu receives about two-million dollars research grant to support his group’s interdisciplinary research in developing new instrument platforms to study energy science and biotechnology, for the next five years. Hu has been a pioneer in interdisciplinary research: His group has made the experimental discover of a new semiconductor, boron arsenide, currently considered as the ‘best semiconductor ever’ due to its ultrahigh thermal conductivity and high electron mobility — the breakthrough research was reported as an article in Science magazine that has been cited over 300 times within the last three years. More recently, his group made other breakthroughs in exploring transport physics and device applications reported in high-impact journals including Nature, Nature Electronics, and Nature Communications.
The incoming program opens up a new interdisciplinary area, where Professor Yongjie Hu will bring his expertise in heat transfer and quantum physics into the investigations of fundamental biological and biomedical questions.
“I’d like to thank the support from the federal government,” Hu said, “It gives me the freedom to explore new research directions and to push the fundamental boundaries beyond traditional disciplinaries.”
Prior to joining UCLA Samueli in 2014, Hu received PhD from Harvard University and postdoc fellowship from MIT. Hu’s research has been recognized by diverse research societies with multiple awards including Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, ASME Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer, Outstanding Investigator Award, NSF CAREER Award, U.S. Air Force Young Investigator Award, and UCLA Engineering School’s Watanabe Excellence in Research Award, among others.