Yuebing ZhengView profile
Professor
Yuebing Zheng is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, holding the Cullen Trust for Higher Education Endowed Professorship. He leads a research group innovating optical nanotechnologies for applications in health, energy, and manufacturing. His work focuses on light-matter interactions, optically active materials, and interdisciplinary training. Key roles include Graduate Advisor for the Materials Science Program and past leadership as Associate/Assistant Professor since 2013. Education: PhD in Engineering Science and Mechanics (2010), Penn State University Postdoctoral Researcher (2010-2013), UCLA (Chemistry and Biochemistry) MSc in Physics (2003), National University of Singapore BSc in Physics (2001), Nankai University Research Interests: Optical manipulation technologies (e.g., optothermal tweezers) Nanophotonics and metamaterials Machine learning for materials discovery Biomedical applications (e.g., cell analysis, chiral sensing) Clean energy systems Recent Article Trends: Focus on AI-driven materials design, optothermal microrobotics, and advanced optical systems for energy and biomedical applications. Key innovations include photonic batteries, graphene moiré systems, and steerable active particle swarms. Awards: 2025 SPIE Fellow 2024 Optica Fellow 2017 NIH New Innovator Award 2014 Beckman Young Investigator Multiple best paper awards (2019–2023) Advising & Grants: Supervised over 20 PhD students/postdocs. Active grants from NIH, NSF, ONR, NASA, and industry partnerships. Current lab focuses on optical manipulation, metamaterials, and AI-integrated nanotechnology. Labs/Teams: Director of the Zheng Research Group, affiliated with the Texas Materials Institute. Collaborates on projects merging nanoscience with machine learning and biomedical engineering.









