People

Renkun Chen

Professor, UC San Diego
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Materials Science and Engineering Program
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley, 2008
B.S. in Engineering Thermo-Physics, Tsinghua University, China, 2004

Prof. Renkun Chen joined the UCSD faculty in November 2009. Prior to joining UCSD, Chen did his doctoral work in Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley from 2004-2008 and was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, both working with Prof. Arun Majumdar

Office: Room 261, EBU-II
Tel: 858-822-7980 (O)
Email:rkchen@ucsd.edu

Kwangsoo Cho

Ph.D. Student, Office: Room 263, EBU-II
Materials Science Engineering Program, UCSD
Kwangsoo joined the group in Fall 2025 as a Ph.D. student. He received his B.S. in 2022 and his M.S. in 2024 in Fiber System Engineering from Dankook University (South Korea). His research focuses on evaporation-driven cooling.

Yuki Akura

Visiting Ph.D. Student, Office: Room 263, EBU-II
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UCSD
Yuki is a visiting Ph.D. student from Kyoto University, Japan. He joined the group in June 2025. He received his B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering in 2022 and his M.Eng. in Thermal Engineering in 2024, both from Kyoto University. His research background is in nanoscale thermal transport, and he is currently working on evaporation-based cooling systems at UCSD.

Nicholas Lam

Ph.D. Student, Office: Room 263, EBU-II
Chemical Engineering Program, UCSD.
Nicholas joined the group in Spring 2026 as a PhD student. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 2024 from UC San Diego. His research interests are in energy conversion materials and applications, and his current research focuses on evaporative cooling and thermophotovolatics.

Eunju Jeong

Ph.D. Student, Office: Room 262, EBU-II
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UCSD.
Eunju will join the group in Fall 2026 as a Ph.D. student. She received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Sookmyung Women’s University in 2022 and her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Sogang University in 2024. Her research interests include thermal photonics and nanoscale thermal transport.

Duy Cao

MS Student
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UCSD
Duy joined the group in Winter 2025 as an undergraduate student. He is currently a Master's student after receiving his BS in Spring 2025.

Victor Tao

MS Student
Materials Science and Engineering Program, UCSD
Victor joined the group in Spring 2026 as a master¡¯s student. He received his B.S. in Applied Chemistry from Northeastern University, China. He is currently pursuing his M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at UC San Diego. His research focuses on material development for evaporation-based cooling systems, especially high-thermal-conductivity fiber membranes for thermal management applications.

Ayman Abdullah

Undergraduate Student
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UCSD
Ayman joined the group in Spring 2025. He is currently a third-year student.

Orod Shad

Undergraduate Student
Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering, UCSD
Orod joined the group in Sping 2025. He is currently a second-year student.

Andrew Balbuena

Undergraduate Student
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UCSD
Andrew joined the group in Fall 2025. He is currently a second-year student.

Truman You

Undergraduate Student
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UCSD
Truman joined the group in Winter 2025. He is currently a first-year student.

Rosie Liu

Undergraduate Student
Department of Physics, UCSD
Rosie joined the group in Winter 2025. She is currently a first-year student.