Mechanical Engineering Department Seminar Series: Dr. Tian Tang

Mechanical Engineering Department Seminar Series
Friday, January 19, 2024
1 PM - 2 PM
ETLC 6-060

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The Mechanical Engineering Department Seminar Series aims to promote academic discovery and interactions among our academics, graduate students, and undergraduate students.

All faculty members, research staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students from the Department and across the Faculty are invited to attend. The presentation will be approximately 30-40 minutes in duration, with the remainder of the hour available for questions, discussion, and mingling.

Invited talk
Dr. Tian Tang, Professor, Mechanical Engineering, will give an invited talk titled "Multi-Scale Modelling of Soft Materials and Interfaces".

Abstract
Soft materials such as polymers and interfaces such as those in emulsions are ubiquitous, and they govern many phenomena in life science and engineering applications. Performances of these materials are complex, determined by both interactions between constituting molecules at microscopic scale and their collective behaviors that render macroscopic functions. This talk will present a few examples from our research group where we develop models, methods and tools that allow for characterization of the materials’ bulk and interfacial properties at varying scales. Tentatively, physical systems to be discussed include: hydrophobic modification of cationic polymers for improved delivery of nanoparticles in gene therapy, liquid phase exfoliation of graphitic carbon nitride, tough multi-network elastomers, and a newly developed in-silico fluorescence microscope.

Speaker bio
Dr. Tang is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair at the University of Alberta. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Mechanics from Tsinghua University (2001) and PhD in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Cornell University (2005). She worked as a Visiting Research Scientist in the Chemical Engineering Department at Lehigh University before joining the University of Alberta where she has been an Assistant Professor (2007-2011), Associate Professor (2011-2015), and Professor (2015-present). Dr. Tang’s general area of expertise is multi-scale modeling and simulation of soft materials and interfaces, and she is broadly interested in the application of analytical and computational methods to tackle problems in soft matter. Dr. Tang is a recipient of many awards, including Adhesion Society’s Distinguished Paper Award (2006) and Outstanding Young Adhesion Scientist Award (2009), APEGA (Association of Professional Engineers & Geoscientists of Alberta) Early Accomplishment Award (2011), Martha Cook Piper Research Prize (2014), Killam Annual Professorship (2021), and Canada Research Chairs (Tier 2, 2007-2018; Tier 1, 2021-present). Besides her academic work, Dr. Tang proudly serves on the Advisory Board of WISEST (Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science and Technology), an organization that empowers young girls (grades 6-12) in STEM fields by providing mentorship and programs.