Mentor Areas
We seek to discover the fundamental structure-property relationships in multifunctional biological materials, elucidate the formation principles for biological and bio-inspired materials, develop novel in-situ mechanical measurement and analysis technologies, and finally develop bio-inspired structural and multifunctional materials.
Description:
Have you wondered why seashells are so strong and tough although their chemical composition is very similar to a piece of chalk? Are you intrigued by the beetles’ exoskeletons which are so colorful yet mechanically strong to provide protection and lightweight to allow the creatures to fly? Or do you know that some starfish species build their “bones” with a mathematically precise microscopic lattice structure that is super strong yet lightweight?
If you are curious about nature, more specifically, if you are curious about how natural organisms designs and produces materials to solve their material challenges, you should come and visit Prof. Ling Li’s lab at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn. Prof. Li’s Biological and Bio-inspired Materials Laboratory studies a variety of materials from nature by understanding their structures, structural and functional properties, as well as formation mechanisms and finally translates to useful biomimetic engineering material solutions.
The lab always welcomes undergraduate students to join the lab and conduct research either independently or jointly with other senior lab members such as Ph.D. students or postdoc fellows. Prof. Li will work with the undergraduate students to design specific research projects that fit with the students’ interests and backgrounds, ranging from characterization of natural materials, data analysis, computational modeling, bio-inspired materials design and fabrication, etc.
Prof. Li strongly believes that undergraduate students can make important original contributions and achieve high impact research results. Prof. Li will work closely with the students to ensure the students gets adequate training and achieve their best in the research program.
Preferred Qualifications
Students with interests in materials science, mechanical engineering, biology, biophysics, and computational design are welcome to email Prof. Li directly.
Project Website
Learn more about the researcher and/or the project here. Ling Li Group
Details:
Preferred Student Year
First-year, Second-Year, Junior, Senior
Academic Term
Fall, Spring, Summer
I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).Volunteer
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.Paid
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.Work Study
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.