MechE Seminar Series: Zuankai Wang

Speaker: Zuankai Wang

Title: Nature-inspired surfaces for water-energy nexus

Abstract: Nature is an expert in water and energy management. Over billions of years’ evolution, biological systems have orchestrated a variety of principles to regulate mass and energy transport, especially by harnessing elegant surfaces and interfaces. This talk will present our recent development on proposing a field-matching principle that provides a new framework for surfaces and interface designs to achieve efficient water-energy nexus. This principle suggests that by tailoring the heterogeneous surfaces to reconstruct the fluid field and the physical gradient field, the two originally mismatched fields can be perfectly matched to maximize the energy output. Such a field-matching principle is also substantiated by introducing the matching coefficient, which serves as an important metric of interface design to mediate the transport and energy processes. The common feature of this principle across diverse fields allows us to establish a unified potential-energy equation, which complements the well-established theoretical framework of energy conversion and helps to guide the development of new materials and systems, even involving acoustic, optical, and magnetic fields.

About the Speaker: Prof. Zuankai Wang is currently the Associate Vice President (Research), Dean of Graduate School, Kuok Group Professor in Nature-Inspired Engineering, and Chair Professor of Nature-Inspired Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Professor Wang is a member of Hong Kong Academy of Engineering and Fellow of International Society of Bionic Engineering (ISBE) and Royal Society of Chemistry. His work has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records and his innovations have won the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva Gold Medal with Congratulations of Jury and Gold Medal. He has received many awards including Nano Energy Award (2025), Micro flow and Transport Phenomena Prominent Research Award (2025), 2024 Nukiyama Memorial Award (the highest award conferred by the Heat Transfer Society of Japan), Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year 2023 (Engineering and Technology), Croucher Senior Research Fellowship, BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize, the RGC Senior Research Fellow, Green Tech Award, Xplorer Prize, 35th World Cultural Council Special Recognition Award.

When 11:00 am - 12:00 pm on 17 June 2026
Building ENG 245 110 Cummington Mall