Principal Investigator:

Hongtao Sun

Hongtao Sun is an Assistant Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Pennsylvania State University, where he is also a co-hire of Materials Research Institute (MRI). Additionally, He is affiliated with the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering (IGDP) and Biomedical Engineering (by courtesy). Prior to his current position, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 2014. 

Dr. Sun's research lies at the intersection of energy science, functional materials, and advanced manufacturing. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers in leading journals such as Science, Nature Reviews Materials, Nature Communications, and Nature Catalysis, with a total citation number over 9,000 and an h-index of 36.

 Journal Recognition

2023–      Young Star Editor, Nano Research

2023–      Youth Editor, The Innovation (Cell Press)

2024      Youth Editor, International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing 

2023–      Academic Editor, International Journal of Energy Research

2022–       Associate Editor, Frontiers in Energy Research

2023     Associate Editor, Frontiers in Materials

2024      Editorial Board Members, ACS Applied Nano Materials

2023      Editorial Board Members, MDPI Energies

2023–      Editorial Board Members, Innovation Discovery

2023         Guest Editor, Frontiers in Energy Research

2023     Guest Editor, Frontiers in Materials

2023         Guest Editor, Joint Journals of Batteries, Clean Technologies, Energies, Materials, and Nanomaterials

2023         Guest Editor, ACS Applied Nano Materials

2023         Guest Editor, iScience (Cell Press) 

 Graduate Students

Bo Nie (M.S., Zhejiang University) 

Ph.D. Candidate, since 2019 Fall

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


Haoqing Yang (M.S., University of Florida)

Ph.D. Candidate, since 2020 Fall

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


Zhongkun Zhao (M.S., University of Florida)

Ph.D. Candidate, since 2020 Fall

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


Juchen Zhang (M.S., Cornell University)

Ph.D. Candidate, since 2020 Fall

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


Linrui Duan (M.S., University of Akron)

Ph.D. Candidate, since 2021 Fall

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


Yifang Ding (M.S., University of Akron)

Ph.D. Candidate, since 2022 Fall

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


Ta-Wei Wang (M.S., UCLA)

Ph.D. Candidate, since 2023 Fall

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


Chandan Gudi 

M.S. student, since 2022 Fall

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


Kamal Kanumuru 

M.S. student, since 2022 Fall

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


 Undergraduate Students

Anthony Ditizio

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


Ethan Liebig

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


Enrique Tello

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


Sameep Ayinoor

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering


Youhanna Melaka

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering