Dr. Jun Xu Named to 40-Under-40 List

The Charlotte Business Journal has named Dr. Jun Xu, an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science Department, as one of its 40-Under-40 Young Professionals for 2021.

Dr. Xu is the director of Vehicle Energy and Safety Laboratory (VESL) within UNC Charlotte’s North Carolina Automotive and Motorsports Research Center. His research expertise includes lithium-ion battery safety and impact dynamics for applications in electric vehicles. Since coming to Charlotte in 2014, he has successfully secured more than $3-million in research funding from both governmental and industry (e.g. Jaguar Land Rover, Altair, Dassault, CosMX, GAC) groups.

Dr. Xu serves as the vice chair of the Energy Conversion and Storage Committee, and the Multifunctional Materials Committee for the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME). He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers in top journals including Energy Storage Materials, Journal of Material Chemistry A, and the Journal of Power Sources.

Dr. Xu earned his Ph.D. degree from Columbia University in 2014 and worked as a faculty member at Beihang University, China from 2014 to 2018.

Research Focus

Dr. Xu’s research background stems from mechanics and extends comprehensively into interdisciplinary fields, i.e., energy and electrochemistry with the focus on vehicle related application. His research group focuses on the following research topics:

• Lithium-ion battery safety (including multi-physics modeling, multiscale simulation, machine-learning based modeling and operando characterization of safety behaviors);
• Design and development of multifunctional energy storage systems;
• Theoretical analysis and design of advanced materials and structures for dynamic loadings.