Rui ZHANG

Biography

  • Professor Rui Zhang joined SCUT’s faculty in 2018. He earned a BS in physics and mathematics from Tsinghua University, a MS in physics from McMaster University, and a PhD in materials science and engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author or co-author of more than 20 peer-reviewed scientific publications in the recent five years and is a recognized expert in the field of soft matter theory and computation, especially in the research area of soft matter glassy dynamics and self-assembly.

Research Interests

  • Prof. Rui Zhang’s research interest is on the development and application of statistical mechanical theories, molecular simulation methods and machine learning techniques to study multi-scale structures and dynamical evolution processes in soft condensed matter systems. The recent focused research topics include hierarchical self-assembly phenomena in giant molecule melts and supramolecular solutions, glassy dynamics in multi-component polymeric and colloidal systems, and the application of artificial intelligence in soft matter science.

Awards & Honors

2011
Racheff-Intel Research Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Selected Publications

  • Liu, Y.#; Guo, Q.-Y.#; Huang, Z.#; Lei, H.; Liu, T.; Yan, X.-Y.; Bian, F.-G.; Lin, Z.; Liu, G.; Zhang, W.; Huang, M.; Zhang, R.*; Cheng, S. Z. D.* Mesoatomic Engineering for Programmable Spherical Packing Superlattices in Self-Assembly of Giang Molecular Clusters. CCS Chem.2025, 7, 440-451.

  • Du, Z.#; Dai, J.#; Wang, Z.; Ye, Z.; Lei, H.; Guo, Q.-Y.; Yan, X.-Y.; Li, M.; Li, M.; Zhao, W.; Zhang, B.; Huang, Y.; Yang, Z.; Huang, Z.; Yin, P.; Jiang, L.; Zhang, R.*; Tang, W.* Engineering the Self-Assembly Pathways of POSS-Peptide Amphiphiles to Form Diverse Cross-β Structures. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2025, 64, e202420043.

  • Zhou, X.#; Wang, P.#; Li, Y.; Han, Y.; Chen, J.; Tang, K.; Shi, L.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, R.*; Lin, Z.* Accurate DNA Sequence Prediction for Sorting Target-Chirality Carbon Nanotubes and Manipulating Their Functionalities. ACS Nano 2025, 19, 2665-2676.

  • Song, Z.-C.; Ma, X.-J.; Huang, C.-Y.; Xu, F.-X.; Fang, S.-Q.; Peng, Z.-X.; Zhang, R.* Computationally-aided design of single-ion-conducting block copolymer electrolytes to boost lithium-ion conductivity. Polym. Int.2025, DOI: 10.1002/pi.6735.

  • Zou, Q.; Ruan, Y.; Zhang, R.*; Liu G.* Tunable Slow Dynamics of Three-Dimensional Polymer Melts through Architecture Engineering. Macromolecules2024, 57, 777-785.

  • Ma, X.; Zhang, R.* Cooperative activated hopping dynamics in binary glass-forming liquids: effects of the size ratio, composition, and interparticle interactions. Soft Matter2023, 19, 4746-4771.

  • Zhan, T.#; Liu, Q.-S.#; Sun, Y.-J.; Qiu, L; Wen, T; Zhang, R.* A General Machine Learning-based Approach for Inverse Design of One-dimensional Photonic Crystals Toward Targeted Visible Light Reflection Spectrum. Optics Communications2022, 510, 127920.

  • Han, Y.; Zhang, R.* Quantitative Theoretical Study of Molecular and Chain-Level Conformational Properties of Poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilanes). Macromolecules2021, 54, 10645-10656.

Teaching

Undergraduate courses:

Numerical Analysis

Computational Materials Science

Calculus (2019-2020)

Graduate courses:

Soft Matter Physics III