NEWS
UNIVERSITY HONORS TOP JONSSON SCHOOL MENTOR, DISSERTATION AND THESIS
Amidst the pomp and circumstance of end-of-year commencement activities, a number of faculty, staff and students were honored for their contributions to academic excellence, student education and community involvement.
“We are proud to honor just a few of those who help make The University of Texas at Dallas one of the top universities in the country,” said Dr. Inga Musselman, UT Dallas provost, vice president for academic affairs and the Cecil H. Green Distinguished Chair of Academic Leadership. “There is a strong commitment here to academic and community excellence.”
Best Dissertation Award
Peiyuan Kang PhD’20
Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science
Photoinactivation of Proteins by Molecular Hyperthermia
Research Mentor: Dr. Zhenpeng Qin
Peiyuan Kang PhD’20 graduated with his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from UT Dallas in May 2020. He has continued as a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Zhenpeng Qin’s Nano-Thermal Bioengineering Laboratory. Kang’s research activities relate to various research frontiers in the fields of nanotechnology and biomedical sciences. During his PhD study, he focused on understanding the interaction between metal nanostructures and biological systems. He developed a method using plasmonic heating of gold nanovesicles to precisely inactivate proteins known as molecular hyperthermia. This technology can be potentially developed as a precise therapeutic method neurological disorders or cancers and infectious disease testing. Now, Kang’s study is trying to provide a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between pulsed laser and plasmonic nanoparticles, including plasmonic heating, nanoparticle fragmentation and photoacoustic effect.
Kang was born and raised in Xi’an, China. Prior to arriving in the U.S., he earned a bachelor’s degree at Harbin Engineering University with a focus on thermal energy and power engineering. In 2014, Kang began to pursue his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at UT Dallas and later joined Qin’s lab as a PhD student.