Biography:
Dr. Sili Deng received her bachelor’s degree in Thermal Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2010 and her master’s and doctoral degrees in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University in 2012 and 2016, respectively. From 2016 to 2018, Dr. Deng was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. She joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT as an assistant professor and was appointed to the d’Arbeloff Career Development Chair in January 2019. Her research focuses on energy conversion and storage. Specifically, Dr. Deng is interested in the fundamental understanding of combustion and emissions, physics-informed data-driven modeling of reacting flows, carbon-neutral energetic materials, and flame synthesis of materials for catalysis and energy storage. Dr. Deng received the Bernard Lewis Fellowship from the Combustion Institute in 2016.
Vision Statement:
Combustion research has achieved great glory and has been the engine of our civilization for a long time. Now that our society is facing pressing energy problems, combustion research also faces the challenge of finding the next big breakthrough. I believe that combustion research is inter-disciplinary by nature, and the development in related fields, such as data-driven modeling, diagnostics, materials sciences, bring us powerful tools and open new opportunities. I would like to promote research that employs new techniques, introduce new insights discovered with them, and facilitate communication in our community. I am also deeply interested in using combustion science to solve real-world problems, and I will foster partnerships with industries.
The Covid-19 disruption reminds us of the importance of community and collaboration. I would like to provide opportunities for researchers to communicate ideas, share feedback, and foster collaboration relationship. For example, I would like to organize webinar series featuring graduate students and postdocs, which would be a great platform to share new discovery, brainstorm, and find new collaborators.
I have been a member of ESSCI for many years and greatly benefitted from it. And I truly look forward to this opportunity to serve this community.