Yan Wu

Dr. Wu earned her PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, her Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alabama, and her Bachelor of Science in Precision Instruments with a minor in Electronics and Computer Technology from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

Dr. Wu's thesis work was in the area of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) with a focus on effects of space charges on micro to nano-scale electrostatic actuation. She worked as a postdoctoral research associate in Mechanical Science and Engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she participated in multiple projects using scanning probe microscopy to study material properties. She has also been a visiting scholar in the Biomedical Engineering department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Her current research interest lies in the areas of micro to nanometer scale device fabrication and scanning probe microscopy based material characterization. Applications of her research span a variety of interdisciplinary focus areas including nano-scale materials and structures for energy conversion and storage, nano-electronics, solid/water interfacial phenomena, nano-mechanics of biological materials, and microfluidic devices for biomedical applications.