People

Yang-Tse (YT) Cheng

Frank J. Derbyshire Materials Science Research Professor

Professor of Physics and Astronomy (joint appointment)

Faculty Associate, Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky (PEIK)

Current Group Members

Graduate Students

Haidar Alolaywi (PhD in Chemical Engineering, 2026 (expected))

Santosh Thapa (PhD in Physics, 2026 (expected))

Ethan Lauricella (PhD in Materials Engineering, 2027 (expected))

Deepak Kharel (PhD in Physics, 2028 (expected))

Jiaxiang Cui (PhD in Chemical Engineering, 2028 (expected))

Fariha Hossain (PhD in Chemical Engineering, 2029 (expected))

Former Group Members

Graduate Students

Rutooj Deshpande (PhD in Chemical Engineering, Nov. 21, 2011; Battery Research Engineer with the Electrified Powertrain Engineering Department, Ford Motor Company; Senior Manager, Battery Cell Engineering, Rivian; Founder and CEO, GoVidyouth Mobility and Associate Professor of Practice, University of Mumbai, India)

Juchuan Li (PhD in Materials Engineering, March 28, 2012; Advanced Materials Scientist, Apple, Inc.; Staff Battery Engineer, 2170 Cell Pilot Line Manager, Tesla, Inc.) 

Ilona Hoffmann (PhD in Materials Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, August 27, 2014)

Brian Ray (PhD in Physics, 2014)

Qinglin Zhang (PhD in Materials Engineering, March 11, 2016; Senior Researcher, General Motors Global R&D Center; Staff Manufacturing Engineer, Rivian; Head of Mass Production Planning - Formation and Aging at PowerCo SE)   

Jie Pan (PhD in Materials Engineering, April 11, 2016; Post-Doctoral Fellow, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL); Senior Editor, Nature Portfolio)

Jiagang Xu (PhD in Materials Engineering, September 29, 2016; Post-Doctoral Fellow, General Motors Global R&D Center; Staff Engineer II, Amperex Technology Limited (ATL), Ningde, Fujian, China)

Tao Chen (PhD in Materials Engineering, April 28, 2017; Associate Senior Engineer, BAK Battery Co., Ltd. China, Shenzhen China; Senior Engineer, Huawei; Cell Product Line Vice General Manager for large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS), Principal Engineer, Sunwoda, China)

Mohanad Najah Al-Shroofy (PhD in Materials Engineering, May 4, 2017; Lecturer at the University of Technology in Baghdad, Iraq)

Long Zhang (MS in Materials Engineering, September 8, 2017; Ph.D. program, Leibniz Institute for New Materials, Saarbrücken, Germany)

Xiaowen Zhan (PhD in Materials Engineering, October 26, 2018; Post-Doctoral Fellow, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Professor, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui, China; Senior Research Associate in Engineering, Brown University)

Baleegh S. Alobaid (PhD in Materials Engineering, November 7, 2018; Lecturer at the University of Al-Muthanna, Almutanna, Iraq)

Shuang Gao (PhD in Materials Engineering, April 15, 2019; Research Scientist, Pacific Industrial Development Corp, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Senior Materials Engineer, Apple, Inc.)

Yikai Wang (PhD in Materials Engineering, April 29, 2019; R&D Engineer IV, Lithium Metal Foil Anode Processing, Albemarle) 

Jiazhi Hu (PhD in Materials Engineering, July 17, 2019; Senior Researcher, General Motors Global R&D Center; Battery Cell Expert, Volkswagen China; Manager, Advanced Cell Technology, Porsche China)

Dingying Dang (PhD in Materials Engineering, April 27, 2020; R&D Engineer III, Albemarle)

Andrew W. Meyer (PhD in Materials Engineering, December 13, 2021; Engineer, Lehigh Hanson; Assistant Material Development Engineer, Mytex Polymers US Corporation)

Ming Wang (PhD in Materials Engineering, December 14, 2021; Researcher, General Motors Global R&D Center; Principal Researcher, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd)

Jacob Hempel (PhD in Physics, August 31, 2023; Postdoctoral Fellow, Texas A&M University)

Ryan Hill (PhD in Chemical Engineering, October 17, 2023; Postdoctoral Fellow, Stony Brook University)

Bhamiti Sharma (PhD in Physics, April 22, 2024; Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky)

Kübra Uzun (PhD in Chemical Engineering, October 3, 2025; Battery Scientist, CoreShell Technologies)

Postdoctoral Scholars

Yan Jin (PhD in Materials Engineering at the University of Kentucky, 2016-2017) 

Lin Yang (PhD in Materials Engineering at the University of Kentucky, 2016-2017) 

Visiting Scholars

Dawei Li (Graduate student at the Shanghai University, China, 2016-2018)

Yan Sun (Graduate student at the Anhui University, China, 2017-2018)

Undergraduate Students

Lena Loewenau (exchange student from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 2009-2010)

Ilona Hoffmann (diploma thesis student from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 2009-2010)

Nisha Kishor (political science major, summer 2010)

Alison Carter (high school student, summer 2010)

Dwight Nagel (Materials Engineering, 2010 -2011)

Yunchao Li (Materials Engineering, 2011-2012)

Zhi Liang (Materials Engineering, 2011-2013)

Jie Li (Materials Engineering, 2012-2013)

Leonard Franke (exchange BS student from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, fall 2013)

Ahmed Louati (exchange MS student from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, fall 2013)

Lukas Rossel (exchange BS student from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, fall 2014)

Yue Yu (Chemical Engineering, 2012-2014)

Ming Wang (Materials Engineering, 2014-2015)

Chengxi Zhao (Materials Engineering, 2014-2015)

Boniface Oseiamankona (Kentucky State University, summer 2015)

Aaron Wilson (Kentucky State University, summer 2015)

Laura Grueneberg (Chemical Engineering, summer 2016)

Ben Dixon (Materials Engineering, 2016-2017)

Corey Mattic (Kentucky State University, summer 2017)

Vincent Kelly (Kentucky State University, summer 2018)

Megan Reinhart (Mechanical Engineering, summer 2018)

Gabriel Garcia (Materials Engineering, summer 2018)

Stephen M. Schaninger (Chemical Engineering, summer 2019)

Luke Hentz (Materials Engineering, 2023 - 2024)

Gabriel M. Suarez (Materials Engineering and Physics, 2024)

Jiarui Cheng (Materials Engineering, 2025)