Wenjie Zhou
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Education
- Ph.D., Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2022
- Postdoctoral Scholar, Mechanical Engineering, Caltech, 2022-2025
Biography
Dr. Wenjie Zhou is a materials scientist whose training spans molecular and colloidal synthesis (Ph.D., Northwestern), architected and topological materials (postdoc, Caltech), and computation. Moving from programming interactions among molecules and nanoparticles to studying how structure governs behavior at larger scales, Zhou developed a unifying view: architecture and connectivity can be treated as primary design variables, alongside composition. This perspective now guides the Intelligent Matter Lab in MatSE at Illinois.
At Illinois, Zhou collaborates across MatSE, MRL, MechSE, and beyond on problems where clear principles at one scale can inform design at another. The group blends experiment, modeling, and AI to translate fundamentals from mathematics and physics into robust material behaviors and practical demonstrators, while training researchers who are fluent in synthesis, fabrication, measurement, and theory.
Academic Positions
- Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering (100%)
- Assistant Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering (0%)
- Assistant Professor, Materials Research Laboratory (0%)
Research Statement
We study materials made of many discrete parts, from molecules to macroscopic units such as links and grains, that interact through contact, entanglement, and interlocking instead of forming a single continuous solid. This discontinuous, many-particle view lets us ask how shape and connectivity, as much as chemistry, determine how a material carries force and information and how it evolves over time. Our aim is to turn these rules into materials that exhibit lifelike behavior: responsive, multifunctional, and efficient.
Our approach is cross-scale and deeply rooted in materials science. We program molecular organization and entanglement through synthetic chemistry and self-assembly; we architect meso- and macroscale structures with additive manufacturing; and we connect processing, structure, and properties through computation and in situ characterization. This perspective sits outside the usual soft- or hard-matter categories because the organizing principle is many-particle architecture across length scales. In the Intelligent Matter Lab, we connect mathematics and physics to synthesis and measurement, using topological, geometric, and AI-assisted design to link fundamental rules to practical materials that meet real needs.
Our longer-term vision is to create intelligent matter: materials whose function arises from how individual parts are arranged and how they interact. This opens new options for resilient aerospace components, durable energy and packaging interfaces, adaptable robotic elements, and other technologies where reliability and efficiency matter.
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. [Cover Article]
- 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.
- Yan, H., Meng, Z., Zhou, W., and Daraio, C., Rigidity Criteria for Chainmail Consisting of Tessellations of Torus Knots, Physical Review Letters, 2025, 135, 088201.