Shucong Li (李姝聪)

Shucong Li (李姝聪)

Postdoc in Mechanical Engineering,

ZhaoLab, MECHE, MIT

News

I am joining Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering and School of Physics as an Assistant Professor Jan, 2025 leading the Soft Intelligent Materials and Devices Lab: Multiscale Synthesis and Manufacturing. I am actively recruiting undergraduate and graduate researchers, visiting students, and interns (checkout Opportunity) page for more informationpage for more information.



About

As a researcher in material science, I’ve been always fascinated by the intelligent materials—living organisms—that nature creates. To survive and master in the ever-changing environment, “nature uses soft materials frequently and stiff materials sparingly – better bent than broken” (Vogel, 1995), and is capable of tasks that surpass even the most impressive machines that humans have devised.

Interested in synthetically constructing soft intelligent materials, my research focuses on exploiting the rich dynamics in molecular switches and molecular assemblies, and its coupling to mesoscale architectures and macroscale material properties, to realize new exciting functions based on self-regulation across lengthscales. By bringing the intelligence of soft materials to the next level, I’m hoping to realize next-generation multifunctional materials with increased autonomy to address challenges in healthcare, energy, and sustainability.

Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Scholar in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, working with Prof. Xuanhe Zhao on multiscale structural control of hydrogels (e.g., phase separation, 3D printing) for applications in sustainability and healthcare. Prior to this, I worked with Prof. Joanna Aizenberg at Harvard University, where I earned my Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2022. My research focuses on developing bio-inspired, responsive, self-adaptive, and architected materials—leveraging the fundamental principles of soft matter physics, polymer phase engineering, soft material mechanics, and advanced nano/microfabrication and additive manufacturing techniques—to pioneer novel types of soft intelligent materials and soft robotics for real-world challenges in healthcare and sustainability.



Towards intelligent soft materials

Eliciting diverse motion trajectories in a single-material micropost
Eliciting diverse motion trajectories in a single-material micropost


Related publications:
1. Shucong Li, Michael M Lerch, James T Waters, Bolei Deng, Reese S Martens, Yuxing Yao, Do Yoon Kim, Katia Bertoldi, Alison Grinthal, Anna C Balazs, Joanna Aizenberg (2022).
Self-regulated non-reciprocal motions in single-material microstructures. Nature.
2. James T Waters, Shucong Li, Yuxing Yao, Michael M Lerch, Michael Aizenberg, Joanna Aizenberg, Anna C Balazs (2020). Twist again - Dynamically and reversibly controllable chirality in liquid crystalline elastomer microposts. Advanced Materials.
3. Yuxing Yao, James T Waters, Anna V Shneidman, Jiaxi Cui, Xiaoguang Wang, Nikolaj K Mandsberg, Shucong Li, Anna C Balazs, Joanna Aizenberg (2018). Multiresponsive polymeric microstructures with encoded predetermined and self-regulated deformability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
4. Emily C Davidson, Arda Kotikian, Shucong Li, Joanna Aizenberg, Jennifer A Lewis (2020). 3D printable and reconfigurable liquid crystal elastomers with light‐induced shape memory via dynamic bond exchange. Advanced Materials.