Wenjie Zhou
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Education
- Ph.D., Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2022
- Postdoctoral Scholar, Mechanical Engineering, Caltech, 2022-2025
Academic Positions
- Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering (100%)
- Assistant Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering (0%)
- Assistant Professor, Materials Research Laboratory (0%)
Research Statement
Inspired by biological organisms, the Zhou Group aims to create intelligent materials that are dynamic, multifunctional, and resource-efficient, capable of operating autonomously in complex and changing environments. We combine synthetic chemistry and self-assembly to program molecular organization and entanglement, and leverage additive manufacturing to architect structures at meso- and macroscopic scales. By designing the geometry and topology of these materials, we transform materials into multifunctional machines that can sense, adapt, and perform tasks with minimal external input. At a fundamental level, we investigate how entangled networks and their dynamics dictate material properties across length scales. Our vision is to realize responsive, physically intelligent, and ultimately sentient material systems that push the boundaries of materials science and enable transformative advances in aerospace, robotics, and healthcare.
Research Interests
- Data-Driven Materials Design and Discovery
- Metamaterials
- Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
- Additive Manufacturing
- Topological Mechanics
Research Areas
Selected Articles in Journals
- Zhou, W., Nadarajah, S., Li, L., Izard, A.G., Prachet, A.K., Patel, P., Yan, H., Xia, X., and Daraio, C., 3D Polycatenated Architected Materials, Science, 2025, 387, 269.
- Zhou, W.*, Li, Y.*, Partridge, B.E., and Mirkin, C.A., Engineering Anisotropy into Ordered Nanoscale Matter, Chemical Reviews, 2024, 124, 11063-11107.
- Zhou, W.*, Li, Y.*, Je, K., Vo, T., Lin, H.-X, Huang, Z., Partridge, B.E., Glotzer, S.C., and Mirkin, C.A., Space-tiled colloidal crystals from DNA-forced shape-complementary polyhedra pairing, Science, 2024, 383, 312-319.
- Zhou, W., Lim, Y., Lin, H.-X, Lee, S., Li, Y., Lee, S., Huang, Z., Du, J.S., Sanchez-Iglesias, A., Grzelczak, M., Wang, S., Liz-Marzán, L., Glotzer, S.C., and Mirkin, C.A., Colloidal Quasicrystals Engineered with DNA, Nature Materials, 2024, 23, 424-428.
- Zhou, W., Liu, Z., Huang, Z., Lin, H.-X, Samanta, D., Lin, Q.-Y., Aydin, K., and Mirkin, C.A., Device-Quality, Reconfigurable Metamaterials Formed from the Shape-Directed Assembly of Anisotropic Nanocrystals, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of U.S.A. 2020, 117, 21052.