Chixia Tian leaves Nanoscience Program to pursue new role at Brown University

Dr. Chixia Tian, collegiate associate professor in the Academy of Integrated Science, has left Virginia Tech’s Nanoscience Program to take on a new role at Brown University. At Brown, she now serves as assistant teaching professor and assistant director of the Biomedical Engineering Master’s Program. 

Tian joined the Nanoscience faculty in 2018 as a collegiate assistant professor, was promoted to collegiate associate professor in 2023, and departed in summer 2025. She played a central role in the Nanomedicine major, teaching cornerstone courses such as Introduction to Nanomedicine and Advanced Nanomedicine. 

She also led laboratories and seminars in professional communication of research, helping students connect complex scientific concepts to real-world applications. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she designed a new module in which students synthesized lipid vesicles similar to those used in mRNA vaccines.

Her research focused on energy-storage materials, particularly lithium-ion batteries, using advanced laboratory and synchrotron techniques to study structure-property relationships, degradation mechanisms, and safety. She also worked on imaging methods for cancer diagnosis and the synthesis of polymers and nanoparticles for new biomedical and energy applications and will continue researching at Brown.

Penghui Zhao joins Nanoscience Program

Dr. Penghui Zhao has joined the Virginia Tech Nanoscience Program in the Academy of Integrated Science as a postdoctoral associate. He began in summer 2025 and will teach Introduction to Nanomedicine along with the laboratories for Advanced Nanomedicine and Nanomaterials Synthesis and Characterization.

Zhao earned his B.S. in chemistry from Henan University and his Ph.D. in applied chemistry from Fuzhou University. Before joining the Academy of Integrated Science, he was a postdoctoral researcher in Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech with Dr. Wujin Sun, focusing on nanomaterials and nanomedicine.

His research lies at the intersection of engineering technology and pure nanoscience research, including microneedles designed for minimally invasive sensing, targeted delivery, and therapy amplification in precision medicine. Zhao has also supervised nanoscience undergraduates in the past and looks forward to continuing to mentor students in research.