Duffield Hall at sunset.
Two students working on a autonomous plane
Students walking along Ho Plaza
Two students walking on Engineering Quad towards Duffield
Woman taking a photo of a mumified bird

Zhiting Tian

Eugene A. Leinroth Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow
Associate Professor
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Biography

Dr. Zhiting Tian directs the ZT Research Group, specializing in both computational modeling and experimental characterization of energy transport. She joined the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering on July 1, 2018, with the added title of Eugene A. Leinroth Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow. Between 2014 and 2018, she was an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech.

Research Interests

Micro/nanoscale heat transfer; thermal energy conversion and storage; thermal management; multiscale thermal transport in organic, inorganic, and hybrid materials; quantum computing; and biomedical engineering.

Teaching Interests

Introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Nanoscale Energy Transport and Conversion, Future Energy Systems, Atomistic Modeling of Materials

Selected Publications

  • C. Li, H. Ma, T. Li, J. Dai, J. Rasel, A. Mattoni, A. Alatas, M. Thomas, Z. Rouse, S. Baker, J. Feser, D. Mitzi, Z.T. Tian, “Remarkably Weak Anisotropy in Thermal Conductivity of Two-Dimensional Hybrid Perovskite (C4H9NH3)2PbI4 Crystals”, Nano Letters 21(9), 3708–3714 (2021)
  • H. Ma, Z. Aamer, Z.T. Tian, “Ultrahigh Thermal Conductivity in Three-Dimensional Covalent Organic Framework”, Materials Today Physics 21,100536 (2021)
  • J. Dai, and Z.T. Tian, “Rigorous Formalism of Anharmonic Atomistic Green’s Function for Three-dimensional Interfaces”, Physical Review B: Rapid Communications 101, 041301(R) (2020)
  • H. Ma, C. Li, Y. W. Ma, H. Wang, Z.W. Rouse, Z. Zhang, C. Slebodnick, A. Alatas, S.P. Baker, J.J. Urban, and Z.T. Tian, “Super Compliant and Soft (CH3NH3)3Bi2I9 Crystals with Ultralow Thermal Conductivity”, Physical Review Letters 123, 155901 (2019)
  • H. Ma and Z.T. Tian, “Significantly High Thermal Rectification in an Asymmetric Polymer Molecule Driven by Diffusive versus Ballistic Transport”, Nano Letters 18, 43-48 (2018)

Selected Awards and Honors

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Award, 2021
  • NASA Early Stage Innovations Award, 2021
  • Fellow of ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), 2019
  • PMSE Young Investigator, 2019
  • MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators under 35 China, 2019
  • College of Engineering Faculty Fellow, Virginia Tech, 2018
  • Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award, 2018
  • NSF CAREER Award, 2017
  • ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Award, 2017
  • College of Engineering Outstanding New Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech, 2017
  • 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, 2017
  • College of Engineering Undergraduate Research Advisor Award, Virginia Tech, 2016

Education

  • B.E. Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, China 2007
  • M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Binghamton University 2009
  • Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, MIT 2014

Websites