教育背景 

Postdoctoral Fellow and later Research Associate, Northwestern University, IL, USA, 2012-

PhD (Physics), Syracuse University, NY, USA, 2012

M.S. (Physics), Xi'an Jiaotong University, China, 2007

B.S. (Physics), Xi'an Jiaotong University, China, 2004

担任以下杂志审稿人

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A.; Physical Review X; Physical Review E; Physica E; Soft Matter; Energy & Environmental Science; Langmuir; Journal of Physics; Advances in Condensed Matter Physics; Applied Physics A

研究领域

我的研究领域是软物质物理学。简而言之，软物质物理学是将物理学的方法拓展到原本主要由生物学家，材料学家和化学家所研究的系统，包括胶体，液晶，生物膜，颗粒物质，聚合物等。软物质系统的复杂性和重要性在于其所展示的极其丰富的有序结构。怎么来理解这些有序结构的形成和演化，以及在这个过程中不可避免出现的各类缺陷结构？这个软物质研究中的基本问题定义了我的主要研究方向。具体地，我的研究致力于加深对以下问题的理解：1. 晶体和液晶序中的拓扑缺陷是如何产生的？在外界的几何或者力学约束下，其静态和动态行为如何？2. 在各类低维软物质系统的弹性形变中，各种有序结构是怎样产生的？3. 各类软物质中，其几何属性如何影响物理性质？

Topological defects

1. *Z. Yao, Dressed active particles in spherical crystals, Soft Matter, 12,7020 (2016)

2. *Z. Yao and M. Olvera de la Cruz, Dynamics of vacancies in two-dimensional Lennard-Jones crystals, Phys. Rev. E 90, 062318 (2014); Highlighted in Editors’ Suggestion.

3. *Z. Yao and M. Olvera de la Cruz, Polydispersity-driven topological defects as order-restoring excitations, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 111, 5094 (2014)

4. *Z. Yao and M. Olvera de la Cruz, Topological defects in flat geometry: the role of density inhomogeneity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 115503 (2013)

5. *M. Bowick and Z. Yao, Crystalline order on catenoidal capillary bridges, Europhys. Lett. 93, 36001 (2011)

Elasticity and geometry

1. * S. Liu, Z. Yao, K. Chiou, S. I. Stupp, and M. Olvera de la Cruz, Perversion-driven symmetry breaking in helical heterogeneous elastic strips, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 113, 7100 (2016)

2. * J. Su, Z. Yao (co-first author) and M. Olvera de la Cruz, Vesicle Geometries Enabled by Dynamically Trapped States, ACS Nano 10, 2287−2294 (2016)

3. *Z. Yao, M. Bowick, X. Ma and R. Sknepnek, Planar sheets meet negative curvature liquid interfaces, Europhys. Lett. 101, 44007 (2013)

4. *Z. Yao, R. Sknepnek, C. K. Thomas and M. Olvera de la Cruz, Shapes of pored membranes, Soft Matter 8, 11613 (2012)

Electrostatics in soft matters

1. *Z. Yao and M. Olvera de la Cruz, Electrostatics-driven hierarchical buckling of charged flexible ribbons, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 148101 (2016)

2. *V. Jadhao, Z. Yao, C. K. Thomas, and M. Olvera de la Cruz, Coulomb energy of uniformly charged spheroidal shell systems, Phys. Rev. E 91, 032305 (2015)

3. *Z. Yao and M. Olvera de la Cruz, Packing of charged chains on toroidal geometries, Phys. Rev. E 87, 012603 (2013)

4. *Z. Yao, M. Bowick and X. Ma, The electric double layer structure around charged spherical interfaces, J. Chem. Phys. 136, 044106 (2012)

Liquid droplet systems

1. *Z. Yao and M. Bowick, Self-propulsion of droplets by spatially-varying roughness, Soft Matter 8(4), 1142 (2011)

2. *Z. Yao and M. Bowick, The shrinking instability of toroidal liquid droplets in the Stokes flow regime, Eur. Phys. J. E 34, 32 (2011)

欢迎对软物质物理学有兴趣的员工报考硕士、博士研究生，并欢迎有意向读博士后的研究人员与我联系！