Meet the mappers

The mappers come from diverse backgrounds and work across the disciplines of

dye (analytical, organic), polymer and supramolecular CHEMISTRY, 

Nanoscopic imaging of nanofibers in Biological Processes and Textile Materials 

data analytics, imaging processing using MACHINE LEARNING






Yang Zhang

Principal InvestigatorPh.D., University of Miami, FL (2017)Postdoc, Northwestern University, IL (2017-2019)Research Assistant Professor, Northwestern University, IL (2019-2022)Assistant Professor, NC State University, NC (2022-) yang.zhang [at] ncsu.eduGoogle Scholar, NCBI,ORCID:0000-0003-1011-3001

Yunshu Liu

Ph.D. StudentM.S., North Carolina State University (2021)B.S., Wuhan Textile University, China (2019)yliu257 [at] ncsu.eduMapper since 2022Research Interest: Functional environment-sensitive dyes design and synthesis

Hongjing Mao

Ph.D. Student M.S. North Carolina State University (2022)B.S.  Zhejiang Sci&Tech University, China (2020)mhongj [at] ncsu.eduMAPPER since 2023Research Interest: Imaging analytics, statistics and machine learning

Md Abul Shahid

Ph.D. Student M.S. Cukurova University, Turkey/RWTH Aachen University, Germany (2022)B.S.  Bangladesh University of Textiles (2020)mshahid3 [at] ncsu.eduGoogle ScholarORCID: 0000-0002-6344-2952MAPPER since 2023Research Interest: Functional epigenetic probes design and synthesis

Xiayi Gong

PhD studentM.S., Imperial College London(2023)M.S., North Carolina State University (2022)B.S., Soochow University, China (2020)xgong8 [at] ncsu.eduMapper since 2024Research Interest: Biomaterials and nanomaterials.

Yuan Sun

M.S. StudentB.S. Jiangnan University, China (2024)ysun63@ncsu.eduMAPPER since 2024Research Interest: BODIPY dyes design and synthesis

Beth Nichol

Undergraduate StudentPolymer and Color Chemistry, NCSU, Class of 2025MAPPER since 2024Research Interest: BODIPY dye synthesis

Camryn Perkins


Undergraduate StudentBiological Science, NCSU, Class of 2026MAPPER since 2024Research Interest: Vision Science and Biomaterials

Luke Hirsch

Undergraduate StudentPolymer and Color Chemistry, NCSU, Class of 2025MAPPER since 2024Research Interest: Dye Synthesis

Dr. Shuidong Zhu

Visiting ScholarProfessor, Gannan Normal UniversityMAPPER since 2024Research Interest: Chemical Education

We have multiple positions for Ph.D. in the Fiber and Polymer Science (FPS) Program,  the Biomedical Engineering (BME) joint Program from UNC Chapel Hill and NCSU and Master students in the Wilson College of Textiles. We consider anyone who has backgrounds in dye chemistry, polymer science, biology, or programming. 

Qualified candidates with a Bachelor's degree in relevant fields but not a Master's degree are highly welcome to contact Dr. Zhang to consult the possibility of obtaining a waiver for a Master's degree for admission into the FPS Ph.D. program.

We are a highly interdisciplinary team and promote collaboration and diversity at every corner. 

Fomer MAPPERs: 

Graduate Students: 

Jiahui (Gina) Chen, Last known position: PhD candidate at NC State University

Michael Waddington, M.S. in Textile Chemistry, Last known position: -

Undergraduate Students

Nika Sumikawa, Last known position: Undergraduate at NC State University

Beth Nichol, Last known position: Undergraduate at NC State University