Peizhen Kathy Lu
Virginia Tech College of Engineering
Peizhen Kathy Lu, associate professor of materials science and engineering at Virginia Tech, is a 2011 recipient of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award presented by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
This award is for scholars, internationally renowned in their field, who completed their doctorates less than 18 years ago and who are expected to continue to produce cutting-edge achievements which will have a seminal influence on their discipline.
As an award recipient, Lu is invited to spend a year cooperating on a long-term research project with Ralf Riedel at the Technische Universität Darmstadt’s Institute for Materials Science in Germany.
Lu directs Virginia Tech’s Innovative Particulate Materials Laboratory and concentrates her research on nanomaterials, fuel cell material design, composites, materials design, and powder synthesis. Virginia Tech’s Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science supports this laboratory, as well as a number of external sponsors.
Previously she has received the 2008 Karl Schwartzwalder Professional Achievement Award ion Ceramic Engineering, the 2005 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, and a 2005 National Science Foundation Fellowship to attend a summer institute on nanotechnology mechanics and materials.
She obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in ceramics from Tianjin University, China in 1990 and in 1993, respectively. She obtained a second master’s degree and her doctorate in MSE from Ohio State University in 1999 and in 2000.
From 1989-1993, Lu served as a research associate for the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Tianjin University. From 1993-1996, she was employed as an assistant professor in the MSE Department at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing, China.
She was a research associate at Ohio State University in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering from 1996-2000. At Pennsylvania State University, Lu worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Innovative Sintered Products.