Xiangyu Li joined the department in August as an assistant professor after working three years as a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Li received his PhD from Purdue University in 2018. He was a finalist for a 2021 R&D 100 Award and helped create the world’s whitest paint, which set a 2021 Guinness World Record. His research interests include radiative cooling, solar desalination, atmospheric water harvesting, and high-temperature heat exchangers.
Prashant Singh joined the department in in August as an assistant professor. Before coming to UT, Singh was an assistant professor at Mississippi State University for three years. He received his PhD in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech in 2017. He has published nearly 100 articles, including 50 journal papers as well as articles in peer-reviewed journals and conferences in thermal sciences. He is a member of ASME and serves as reviewer for more than 40 international journals in thermal science. In 2021, he received the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the Junior Faculty Outstanding Research Award from Mississippi State University. His research interests include advanced heat and fluid flow diagnostics for thermal management in applications requiring high heat flux dissipation, porous media heat transfer for electronics cooling, particle flows through porous media for concentrating solar power applications, thermal energy storage, additive manufacturing, thermal energy conversion and storage, and micro- and nanoscale heat transfer.