Current Members

Kun Cao joined Soft Material Research Laboratory (SMRL) in Prof. Pei’s group in 2023 as a Visiting Project Scientist, after working at R&D and manufacturing company of display as BOE and CSOT, etc. successively. He received his PhD degree in Microelectronics and Solid-State Electronics from Jilin University in 2008. His current research interests include electronic and optical materials for flexible display devices and exploring the applications of novel display products.

Hanxiang earned his PhD degree in Materials Science and Engineering from UCLA in June 2023, and a B.S. in Microelectronics Science and Engineering from Peking University in 2018. Then he became a postdoctoral researcher at SMRL. His research interests include electrocaloric cooling devices and materials, and stiffness variable polymer for wearable electronics.

Bowen received his PhD degree in Department of Chemical and biomolecular Engineering from National University of Singapore in May 2022, and a B.S. in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from Nanjing University in 2017. He joined SMRL as a postdoctoral researcher in 2024. His research focuses on developing nanophotonic for scintillators on radiation detection.

Yuan Zhu got her PhD degree in Materials Science and Engineering from UCLA in 2024, and the B.S. Degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from UCLA in 2019. She is now a postdoctoral researcher in SMRL. Her research focuses on electrocaloric cooling materials and devices.

Yuxuan received his bachelor’s degree in Nanoengineering from UC San Diego in 2018 and master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Pennsylvania in 2020. Now he is a PhD student under Prof. Pei’s supervision in SMRL. His current research interests include artificial-muscle-based tactile display and wearable haptics device.

Isabelle Winardi graduated with a BS in Chemistry from UCLA in 2020 and is currently a PhD student in Professor Qibing Pei’s lab at UCLA’s Department of Materials Science & Engineering. Past research interests focused on solid polymer films for automatically modulated smart windows, while current research interests include designing a nanocomposite scintillator for medical imaging or for radiation detection purposes.

HyeonJi Hong, a PhD Student at MSE department, joined Soft Material Research Laboratory in Prof. Pei’s group in 2021 after working at LG Innotek on a project about electrophoretic switchable film. She received her Bachelor’s degree in University of Washington, and Master’s in Johns Hopkins University. Current research interest is polymer films for smart window application.

Kede received his bachelor’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from University of British Columbia and a master’s degree from University of Pennsylvania (2021). Now he is a PhD student in the Soft Materials Research Lab. His current research interests include flexible electronic devices.

Zhen received his bachelor’s degree in Macromolecular Science and Engineering from Fudan University and a master’s degree in Chemistry from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He joined the Soft Materials Research Lab as a PhD student in 2024. His current research interests include plastic scintillators for X-ray detection and flexible electronic devices.

Zhangqing Fei is a third-year undergraduate student majoring in biochemistry. She joined the Soft Materials Research Laboratory as a lab assistant in 2022. Her current research interests include polymer synthesis, biochemicals, and machine learning.