| Yongsheng Leng earned his PhD at Tsinghua University. He was a postdoctoral research associate at University of Washington in Seattle with Shaoyi Jiang (chemical engineering) between 1999 and 2001, and a senior research associate with Peter T. Cummings at Vanderbilt University (chemical engineering) between 2002 and 2005. He became a research assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Vanderbilt University in 2006. In the fall 2008, he moved to The George Washington University to become an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and now a professor in the department. Dr. Leng was the recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award (2012) and the GW SEAS outstanding junior faculty research award for his contributions to the understanding of friction behavior of liquid films under confinement. He also received the university writing in the disciplines (WID) distinguished teaching award.Through theory and computer simulations, his research has been evolving from contact mechanics and tribology to more fundamental questions in the surface and interfacial science, including liquid structure and dynamics under nanometers confinements, hydration force and hydrophobic interactions in aqueous system, self-assembly at metal-organic interface, membrane fouling mechanisms in water purification, clay swelling in oil and gas production, and the structure and properties of single molecular junctions in molecular electronics devices and metal-semiconductor contacts in energy harvesting systems. |
