Dr. Cheng Zhu is an Associate Professor and PhD Supervisor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT). He received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Soochow University. From 2019 to 2023, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA. During 2022–2023, he was also appointed as BASF Research Scholar. He joined GTIIT and established the research group in May 2024.

He has applied artificial intelligence methods to drive the design and simulation of next-generation smart materials, accumulating extensive research experience in areas such as carbon quantum dots, semiconductor materials, photonic information materials, catalysis and clean energy, and novel anti-corrosion technologies. To date, he has published more than 50 high-quality research papers in leading journals, including Science Advances, PNAS, Advanced Materials, and Nature Catalysis. As a principal investigator, he has led multiple provincial and ministerial-level research projects. He has also received research funding from BASF and established a close collaborative relationship with the company.

His group integrates artificial intelligence, experimental approaches, and multiscale interfacial simulations to advance the design of next-generation intelligent nanomaterials. The group’s research interests include: (1) multifunctional carbon quantum dots; (2) semiconductor photocatalytic materials and clean energy production; (3) circularly polarized photon materials and information storage; (4) multifunctional polymer nanocomposites; (5) protective coating technologies for metal corrosion prevention; and (6) machine-learning-driven development of materials force fields, databases, and software.

Google Scholar Link: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=zh-CN&user=mDMc5CEAAAAJ