Liquid Crystalline Polymers

Professor Lei Zhu received his B.S. degree in Materials Chemistry in 1993 and M.S. degree in Polymer Chemistry and Physics in 1996 from Fudan University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Polymer Science from University of Akron in 2000. After two-year post-doctoral experience at the Maurice Morton Institute, University of Akron, he joint Institute of Materials Science and Department of Chemical, Materials and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Connecticut, as an assistant professor. In 2007, he was promoted to associate professor with tenure. In 2009, he moved to Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University as an Associate Professor. In 2013, he was promoted to full Professor. His research interests include high κ dielectric and ferroelectric polymers for advanced electrical applications, organic-inorganic hybrid nanomaterials, and supramolecular self-assembly of liquid crystalline polymers. He is recipient of NSF Career Award, 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award, DuPont Young Professor Award, and Rogers Teaching Excellence Award. He is author and co-author of 182 refereed journal publications and 7 book chapters.
Professor Christopher Li received his B.S. from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1995 and his Ph.D. from the Department of Polymer Science, The University of Akron in December, 1999. After working as a post-doc at the Maurice Morton Institute of Polymer Science, UA for 2 years, he joined Drexel University, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in January, 2002 as an assistant professor, and was promoted to associate and full professor in 2007, and 2011, respectively. His research focuses on understanding structure-morphology-property relationship of complex soft and hybrid materials. His group is interested in various ordered polymeric systems, including crystalline, liquid crystalline and block copolymers for energy storage and biomedical applications. Christopher Li is a Fellow of American Physical Society and North American Thermal Analysis Society (NATAS). He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Macromolecules, ACS Macro Letters, Polymer, and Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry.