Kezi Cheng
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Cheng earned her B.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT, and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Harvard University within David Clarke's group. Prior to her Ph.D., she was an associate technologist at TIAX LLC where she was the project lead for an SBIR Phase I assignment to develop non-fluorinated omniphobic coating on textiles using hybrid organic and inorganic surface treatments. At Harvard, Kezi has been investigating the use of soft dielectrics for electrically tunable windows under the MRSEC IRG3 grant. She is also supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship under DGE-1745303. Kezi has been collaborating with universities and companies to understand the mechanisms to improve reversibility and cyclability of tunable windows, as well as explore and control different deformation regimes through time dependent response and recovery behaviors caused by surface instabilities. In addition, she has been working to develop roll-to-roll fabrication techniques to make electrically tunable windows a competitive product in the market. Kezi has a high interest in education, innovation, and outreach. Apart from research, she is a teaching fellow for Science and Cooking, has participated in various startup initiatives, and is a Harvard Dudley Fellow for Public Service.