Tong Zhu
Associate Professor
Kyoto University
Kyoto University
Welcome! I am currently an associate professor at Kageyama Group, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University. My research focuses on crystalline solids and the structure-property relationships in these materials, with particular interests in ferroelectricity, multiferroic behaviors, negative thermal expansions, and batteries. I utilize advanced radiation sources, including synchrotron X-rays and neutrons, to unveil the symmetries and dynamics in solids. By combining these techniques with physical property measurements, we continuously develop new functional materials.
I obtained my undergraduate degrees from Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) and The University of Liverpool in 2016. Following this, I worked with Prof. Michael Hayward at the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory (ICL), Oxford, where I investigated topochemical synthesis and crystal symmetries of layered perovskite oxides exhibiting polar (ferroelectric) and multiferroic properties, earning my DPhil (PhD) in Inorganic Chemistry in 2020. I then moved to Kyoto, Japan, to work with Prof. Hiroshi Kageyama, initially as a postdoctoral researcher, later continued in the same group as an assistant professor, and was promoted to a permanent associate professor position in March 2025.
I have received several prizes and delivered multiple invited talks, including the Malvern Panalytical Thesis Prize for Physical Crystallography for my PhD thesis.