About
Our group (Biohybrid Engineering, Science & Technology [BEST] for Health Lab) affiliates with the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the Cullen College of Engineering, and the Department of Biomedical Sciences in the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine at the University of Houston. Our research focuses on the interface between engineering and biology to create novel devices and technologies for addressing grand challenges in health, medicine and robotics. Specifically, we are interested in the design, fabrication and applications of 3D curvy electronics, biohybrid living robotics (‘Bio-bots’), biomedical devices and instrumentation, biomaterials and tissue engineering, etc. Please visit our Research page to learn more about our current research topics.
Dr. Zhengwei Li is an Assistant Professor and Presidential Frontier Faculty Fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Cullen College of Engineering, with a joint appointment in the Department of Biomedical Sciences in the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine at the University of Houston.
Prior to joining UH, Prof. Li was a postdoctoral fellow working with Prof. John A. Rogers at the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics at Northwestern University. There, he worked on the design and fabrication of wireless wearable electronics for healthcare and biomedical applications. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship for the development of biohybrid machines from NSF Science and Technology Center-EBICS at UIUC. Prof. Li received his doctorate in mechanical engineering (with the highest honor) in 2017 from the University of Colorado Boulder. He earned his master’s degree from Zhejiang University and bachelor’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, both in China.
His research interests focus on the Bioinspired & Biohybrid systems emerged at the interface between human and machine for wide range of healthcare and biomedical applications. Prof. Li’s research work has been published in approximately 30 prestigious journal papers including PNAS, Science Robotics, Nature Electronics, Science Advances, Nature Communications, Nature Protocols, Advanced Materials, Biomaterials, Biofabrication, Advanced Optical Materials, Scientific Reports, etc., and widely reported by many medium outlets such as by Science Daily, YAHOO!, Tech Xplore, Nanowerk, EurekAlert!, UH News, etc. Some research work are highlighted as editor’s choice in Nature, Science Translational Medicine, Matter and others.
Prof. Li has received several fellowships and travel awards for his outstanding research, including the prestigious Haythornthwaite Foundation Travel Award for ASME IMECE, Thomas & Brenda GEERS Graduate Fellowship, NSF Travel Award for ASME Applied Mechanics and Materials conference, CU Summer Graduate School Fellowship, and TAML Best Paper Award. As a result of his achievements during his Ph.D. study at the CU-Boulder, Li was awarded the Outstanding Dissertation Award by the College of Engineering and Applied Science (the highest honor within the college, with only one recipient per year across all different disciplines), and the Steven M. Woodward Outstanding Dissertation Award by the Department of Mechanical Engineering (the highest honor within the department, only one recipient per year).
Openings
We welcome any talented, self-motivated, and hard-working undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers to join us to change the world with healthcare innovation! We currently have Two fully-funded open positions for Graduate PhD students, please visit our Openings page for the details.