Bio

Junpeng was born and raised in a small town near Xi’an, China, where the Terracotta Army is located. He obtained his B.S. at University of Science and Technology of China in 2010. After that he went to Duke University to work on polymer mechanochemistry with Steve Craig, and obtained his PhD degree in chemistry in 2015. In his PhD studies, Junpeng has designed and synthesized a series of stress-responsive polymers; more importantly, by applying single-molecule force spectroscopy, he quantified the force-induced reactivity and elucidated the mechanisms. In 2016, after his PhD studies, he worked as a postdoc with Luping Yu at University of Chicago, where he designed and synthesized a series of porous conjugated polymers and assembled them as the cathode materials for lithium ion batteries. In early 2017, he moved to MIT and worked for Jeremiah Johnson as a postdoc. In the Johnson group, Junpeng developed a method that allows for the quantification of various orders of cyclic defects in polymer networks, which enables the accurate prediction of polymer network elasticity. In January 2019, Junpeng started his independent career as an Assistant Professor of Polymer Science at The University of Akron. In March 2024, Junpeng was promoted to Associate Professor of Polymer Science with Tenure.

Honors, Awards, and Recognitions
Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2024) PMSE Early Investigator Award (2024) Polymer Chemistry Emerging Investigator (2024) Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry (2023) Journal of Polymer Science Emerging Researcher (2023) ACS PRF Doctoral New Investigator Award (2022) C&EN’s Year in Chemistry (2021) NSF CAREER Award (2021)