Yan Wang
Associate Professor- Phone: (775) 784-6468
- Email: yanwang@unr.edu
- Building: PE
- Room: 229
- Mailstop: 0312
- Website: Dr. Wang's website
- Website: Dr. Wang's Google Scholar profile
Dr. Yan Wang joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno as an assistant professor in 2016. He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, in 2016. Prior to his study at Purdue, he received a B.Sc. degree in measurement and control from the Department of Precision Instruments at Tsinghua University, Beijing, in 2010. He also received a bachelor's degree in economics from Tsinghua University, Beijing, in 2010. He is the recipient of the prestigious ACS PRF Doctoral New Investigator Award (2019) and the NSF CAREER Award (2021).
- Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 2016
- B.Sc., Measurement and Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 2010
- B.Sc. in Economics (second degree), Tsinghua University, Beijing, 2010
Prospective graduate students
We have assistantships in the form of research, teaching, or mixed research-teaching assistantships for highly motivated students with a background in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, material science, or any related area. Potential candidates are encouraged to send your detailed CV to Dr. Wang at yanwang@unr.edu. Other than potential Ph.D. students, we always welcome motivated undergraduate students as well as self-funded master's students, visiting scholars and postdocs to join our group. For more information, please contact Dr. Wang directly.
Research interests
- Micro-/nano-scale heat and mass transfer
- Thermal-mechanical properties of materials
- Thermal characterization and measurement
- Energy conversion and storage materials and processes
- Thermal management and thermoelectrics
- Theoretical and computational analysis of processes relevant to laser-based advanced manufacturing
- Behaviors of energy carriers, e.g., phonon, photon, magnon, and electron
Selected publications
- (INVITED REVIEW) Pranay Chakraborty, Tengfei Ma, Amir Hassan Zahiri, Lei Cao, and Yan Wang, "Carbon-Based Materials for Thermoelectrics," Advances in Condensed Matter Physics, vol. 2018, Article ID 3898479, 29 pages, 2018.
- Pranay Chakraborty, Guoping Xiong, Lei Cao, and Yan Wang, "Lattice thermal transport in superhard hexagonal diamond and wurtzite boron nitride: A comparative study with cubic diamond and cubic boron nitride," Carbon, vol. 139, pp. 85-93, (2018)
- Yan Wang, Zexi Lu, and Xiulin Ruan, "First principles calculation of lattice thermal conductivity of metals considering phonon-phonon and phonon-electron scattering," J. Appl. Phys. 119, 225109 (2016)
- Zexi Lu, Yan Wang, and Xiulin Ruan, "Metal/dielectric thermal interfacial transport considering cross-interface electron-phonon coupling: Theory, two-temperature molecular dynamics, and thermal circuit," Phys. Rev. B 93, 064302 (2016)
- Yan Wang, Zexi Lu, Ajit Roy, and Xiulin Ruan, "Effect of interlayer on interfacial thermal transport and hot electron cooling in metal-dielectric systems: an electron-phonon coupling perspective," J. Appl. Phys. 119, 065103 (2016)
- Yan Wang, Chongjie Gu, and Xiulin Ruan, "Optimization of the random multilayer structure to break the random-alloy limit of thermal conductivity," Appl. Phys. Lett., 106, 073104, 2015
- Yan Wang, Haoxiang Huang, and Xiulin Ruan, "Decomposition of coherent and incoherent phonon conduction in superlattices and random multilayers," Phys. Rev. B 90, 165406, 2014
- Yan Wang, Ajit Vallabhaneni, Bo Qiu, and Xiulin Ruan, "Two-dimensional thermal transport in graphene: a review of numerical modeling studies," Nanosc. Microsc. Thermo. 18, 155-182, 2014
- Yan Wang, Ajit Kumar Vallabhaneni, Jiuning Hu, Bo Qiu, Yong P. Chen, and Xiulin Ruan, "Phonon Lateral Confinement Enables Thermal Rectification in Asymmetric Single-Material Nanostructures," Nano Lett., 2014, 14 (2), pp 592-596
- Finefrock, Scott W., Yan Wang (co-first author), John B. Ferguson, James V. Ward, Haiyu Fang, Jonathan E. Pfluger, Douglas S. Dudis, Xiulin Ruan, and Yue Wu, "Measurement of thermal conductivity of PbTe nanocrystal coated glass fibers by the 3ω method," Nano lett. 13, no. 11 (2013): 5006-5012
- Yan Wang, Bo Qiu, and Xiulin Ruan, "Edge effect on thermal transport in graphene nanoribbons: A phonon localization mechanism beyond edge roughness scattering," Appl. Phys. Lett., 101, 013101 (2012).
- Bo Qiu, Yan Wang, Qing Zhao, and Xiulin Ruan, "The effects of diameter and chirality on the thermal transport in free-standing and supported carbon-nanotubes," Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 233105, 2012
- Yan Wang, Xiulin Ruan, and Ajit K. Roy, "Two-temperature nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation of thermal transport across metal-nonmetal interfaces," Phys. Rev. B, 85, 205311, 2012
- Yan Wang, Siyu Chen, and Xiulin Ruan, "Tunable Thermal Rectification in Graphene Nanoribbons through Defect Engineering: A Molecular Dynamics Study," Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 163101, 2012
- Jiuning Hu, Yan Wang, Ajit Vallabhaneni, Xiulin Ruan, and Yong Chen, "Nonlinear thermal transport and negative differential thermal conductance in graphene nanoribbons," Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 113101
Courses taught
- ME 314-Introduction to Heat Transfer
- ME 414/614-Intermediate Heat Transfer
- ME 758-Thermal and Mechanical Analysis of Nanomaterials