Dr Shiyang Tang BEng, PhD

Dr Shiyang Tang

Department of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering
Lecturer

Contact details

Telephone
0121 414 4288
Email
s.tang@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@ShiyangTang
View my research portal
Address
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Shiyang Tang is a Lecturer in the School of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering. He has published more than 60 papers in high-impact journals that have attracted significant media attention and remarkable number of citations.

He has also received major grants such as the Discovery Projects from the Australian Research Council as the Chief Investigator.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), RMIT University, Australia, 2015
  • BEng in Electrical Engineering (1st class honours), RMIT University, Australia, 2012

Biography

Dr. Shiyang Tang received his BEng (1st class honours) in Electrical Engineering and PhD in Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University), Australia, in 2012 and 2015, respectively. He joined the Pennsylvania State University, USA, as a postdoctoral research fellow from 2015 to 2016, worked on surface acoustic wave enabled microfluidic platforms. Later he joined the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), USA, as a postdoctoral scholar from 2016 to 2017, worked on droplet-based microfluidics for point-of-care diagnosis. From 2017 to 2020, he was the Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Dr Tang joined the University of Birmingham, UK, as a lecturer in early 2020.

Dr Tang's research interests include developing microfluidic platforms for biomedical studies and liquid metal enabled micro-/nanoscale platforms. He has published more than 60 papers (25 of them as the corresponding author) in high-impact journals, including PNAS, Nature Communications, Matter, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Small, Analytical Chemistry, and Lab on a Chip.

The outcomes of his works have been highlighted in many world-known science magazines, such as Nature, RSC Chemistry World, New Scientists, Science Daily, Physics Org, Nanowerk, Material Views etc.

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Shiyang Tang is inviting motivated and talented students with a background in electrical/electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, material science, or in a closely related field to join the group. The group conducts research at the interface of engineering, micro/nano technology, material sciences, and biomedicine. Candidates with interests in (but not limited to) one or more of the following topics are particularly encouraged to apply:

  • Microfluidics
  • Flexible and wearable electronics
  • Innovative conductive composite materials
  • Soft robotics
  • Soft sensors and actuators

Prospective applicants should email Dr Tang to discuss possible projects and funding opportunities.

Research

Research Interests:

  • Liquid metal enabled platforms
  • Microfluidics
  • Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
  • Biomedical microdevices
  • Microtechnology
  • Functional materials

Please refer to Dr Tang’s Google Scholar website for details. Briefly, Dr Tang’s research has:

  • Pioneered a new area of research on liquid metal enabled MEMS by providing new knowledge and understanding of the continuous electrowetting effect of gallium-based liquid metal droplets. These fundamental studies have enabled innovative applications in making liquid metal-based microactuators, such as micropumps, micromixers, microvalves, and micromotors without any conventional moving parts. These actuators have been used for manipulating fluidic samples in microfluidic devices and driving robotic systems.
  • Discovered new phenomena including 1) the unconventional positive piezoconductive effect in liquid metal-filled hybrid conductive elastic composites, i.e. the conductivity of the composite dramatically increases upon the application of a tensile strain; and 2) phase separation of liquid metal nanoparticles for forming stable spherical solid-core/liquid-shell structure without the support of a crystalline substrate.
  • Developed various innovative microfluidic and MEMS platforms for 1) constructing integrated lab-on-a-chip systems; 2) realizing versatile microdroplet-based systems for biological assays; and 3) producing stable and biofunctional liquid metal nanoparticles to enable their applications in nanomedicine.

Other activities

  • Associate Editor of the journal of Frontiers in Medical Technology.
  • Guest Editor for the special issue “Applications of Liquid Metals” in Applied Sciences (Impact Factor: 2.217).
  • Regular reviewer for international journals such as:
    • Nature Electronics
    • Advanced Materials
    • Small
    • Advanced Electronic Materials
    • Analytical Chemistry
    • Nanoscale
    • ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
    • IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics
    • Applied Physics Letters
    • Scientific Reports
    • Macromolecular Materials and Engineering
    • Biomicrofluidics
    • Microfluidics and Nanofluidics
    • Electrophoresis
    • Micromachines
    • Sensors

Publications

Representative Publications

  • Smart materials enabled MEMS
    • S.-Y. Tang et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 111, 3304–3309, 2014. (Direct submission)
    • G. Yun, S.-Y. Tang*(Lead corresponding author) et al.,Nature Communications, 10, 1300, 2019.
    • S.-Y. Tang*(Lead corresponding author)et al., Advanced Functional Materials, 28, 1705484, 2018.
    • S.-Y. Tang*(Lead corresponding author)et al., Advanced Functional Materials, 25, 4445–4452, 2015.
    • S.-Y. Tang*(Lead corresponding author)et al., Advanced Functional Materials, 24, 5851–5858, 2014.
    • J. Wu, S.-Y. Tang*(Lead Corresponding author) et al., Advanced Materials, 30, 1805039, 2018.
    • S.-Y. Tang et al., Lab on a Chip, 15, 3905–3911, 2015.
  • Production and application of liquid metal micro-/nanoparticles
    • S.-Y. Tang et al., Advanced Materials, 28, 604–609, 2016.
    • S.-Y. Tang*(Lead corresponding author)et al., Matter(Cell Press), 1, 192–204, 2019.
    • S.-Y. Tang*(Lead corresponding author)et al., Small, 14, 1800118, 2018.
    • S.-Y. Tanget al., Small, 12, 3861–3869, 2016.
    • S.-Y. Tang*(Lead corresponding author) et al., Advanced Materials Technologies, 4, 1800420, 2019.
  • Microfluidic platforms for biological analysis
    • S.-Y. Tang*(Lead corresponding author)et al., Analytical Chemistry, 91, 3725-3732, 2019.
    • S.-Y. Tang*(Corresponding author)et al., Analytical Chemistry, 85, 6364–6371, 2013.
    • R. Cole, S.-Y. Tang, et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 114, 8728–8733, 2017. (Direct submission)

View all publications in research portal