Dr. Xiaoshi Qian is a distinguished professor in Mechanical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Pennsylvania State University, and served as the vice president and CTO of Nascent Device Inc., a spin-off company from Penn State. His research interests lie in energy conversion in ferroelectric and dielectric materials, and related fields ranging from energy harvesting and storage, solid-state refrigeration, and artificial muscles. He invented the high-polar entropy electrocaloric polymers and ceramics, and the motor-free electrocaloric refrigerator for next-generation on-chip thermal management.

His group has published research works in prestigious scientific journals such as Science (3) and Nature (4), leading to the discovery of the giant electrocaloric effect and electrostriction, soft machines with built-in feedback controls.

Plenary talk: Advancements in Electrocaloric and Pyroelectric materials: State of the art and perspectives