Tae-Youl Choi

• Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, May 2002
  Dissertation: Femtosecond Pulsed Laser Processing of Electronic Materials: Fundamentals and Micro/Nano-scale Applications 
  Advisor: Dr. Costas Grigoropoulos
• M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, Korea, Feb 1997
  Dissertation: Evaporative Heat Transfer of HFC Refrigerants in Horizontal Tube
  Advisor: Dr. Minsoo Kim
•  B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, Korea, Aug 1994

Taeyul Theo Choi's research interests include thermal and fluid science in terms of micro and nanoscale. His recent research also includes acoustic wave propagation through functional nanomaterials. He has published more than 40 referred journal papers and his research is funded by a variety of funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation, industry and international funds.

Choi received his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University in Korea, and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Senior Scientist and lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich before joining UNT in 2006. Choi also has served as a committee member on ASME K-15 committee and chaired/organized numerous workshops and conferences.

Dr. Choi’s research group focuses on micro/nanoscale thermal transport phenomena. In specific, he is interested in thermal conductivity in 1-D (such as carbon nanotubes), 2-D (e.g., graphene), and 3-D material systems including biological cells. The cellular level temperature characterization revealed temperature rise during laser irradiation on a retinal pigment epithelium cells and through the thermal conductivity at cellular level, he discovered that the thermal conductivity of cancer cells is lower than that of normal cells. Here are a few topics of his research.

• Cellular level thermal conductivity for early cancer detection
• Nanoscale thermal characterization
• Interfacial thermal resistance
• Nanocomposite membrane for dehumidification application
• Femtosecond laser material processing