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Dr. Ji-Hwan Kang joined the É«ÖÐÉ« Department of Chemical Engineering as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2020. Dr. Kang obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2017. Dr. Kang was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Polymer Science & Engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst from 2017-20.

Dr. Kang’s research focuses on developing soft active materials that respond to their surroundings for dynamically reconfigurable, intelligent systems. His research applies a multidisciplinary approach to create bio-inspired, programmable deformation and instability towards smart sensing/actuating platforms such as untethered soft robotics, mechanical logic gates, adaptive porous surfaces, and drug delivery systems.

During his graduate studies, Dr. Kang demonstrated optofluidic encapsulation of photon-frequency amplification system via triplet fusion with functional polymer composites for low-threshold photonic device integration and both holographic interference lithography and colloidal self-assembly for hierarchical nanostructured energy devices. Recently, he designed new types of shape-morphing materials with tunable mechanical properties for robust self-folding, light-driven motion, and self-limiting assembly.