Research interests

Dr. Cheng’s primary research areas include electrowetting solar cells and solar houses, drop wise condensation on lotus-leaf-like-structures, adaptive beam tracking and steering via electrowetting-controlled liquid prism, wickless vapor chamber with active electrowetting control, hydraulic tomography, and nanoparticle transport in a microchannel.

Brief professional biography

He holds a Ph.D. in physics from Purdue University, a M.S. in computer science from Purdue and a B.S. in applied physics from Peking University. Prior to UNT, he was a research scientist at Teledyne Scientific Company and has served as a principal investigator and co-principal investigator of several research projects with a total funding of more than $2 million.

Awards and recognition

Dr. Cheng received the 1997 Science and Technology Advancement Award from the China Ministry of Nuclear Industry and the 2003 Outstanding Student Paper Award from the American Geophysical Union Meeting. In 2010, his project, "Optofluidic Solar Concentrators", was announced by the U.S. Department of Energy as one of the "six transformational energy research and development projects that could revolutionize how the country uses, stores and produces energy".

Publications

He has published more than 25 journal publications and proceedings in his career.