Hao Zeng is new Associate Professor of Soft Matter Robotics at Tampere University

Before joining Tampere University Hao Zeng obtained PhD in Photonics from the University of Florence, European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy in 2015. Then he was headhunted by Prof. Arri Priimägi to his newly established Smart Photonics Materials (SPM) group where he mainly focused on tunable photonics based on photo-actuated liquid-crystalline systems, and the construction of light-driven soft robots that can walk, swim and dance at submillimeter length scales. During his fruitful years at Tampere University, Dr. Zeng obtained several prestigious Finnish national funding such as Research Council of Finland postdoctoral funding (2018) and Research Council of Finland Academy Research Fellow funding (2021). He has also been awarded with a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant in 2022.

He started his research group at the interface between physics, soft mechanics, and material engineering. He aims to develop general research routes for materials robotics that are out of equilibrium, locomotive, interactive, and capable of self-feedback, adaptation, and communication.

Text: Ekaterina Lisitsyna