Academic Seminar: Heterostructured Coatings for Extreme Environments

Heterostructured Coatings for Extreme Environments

Professor Cheng Zhang

2:30–4:00 p.m., Friday, September 18, 2026

This seminar will present the latest progress by the Huazhong University of Science and Technology team in the materials design, fabrication technologies, and application exploration of heterostructured coatings for extreme environments. The talk will cover three areas: (1) low-friction, wear-resistant heterostructured coatings; (2) high-strength, high-toughness, erosion-resistant amorphous-nanocrystalline coatings; and (3) wear-resistant, anti-fouling heterostructured coatings.

Cheng Zhang is a professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), holds a PhD in Engineering, supervises doctoral students, and serves as Vice Dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering. He has been selected for a national young-talent program, leads an Innovation Group of Hubei Province, has been recognized under Hubei Province's Distinguished Young Scholars and Young Top-Notch Talent programs, and is a Huazhong Distinguished Scholar. His current research focuses on amorphous-nanocrystalline coatings and advanced manufacturing technologies. He has led four projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, including a subproject of a Major Program, an exploratory project under a Major Research Plan, and General Program projects, as well as a National Key R&D Program international cooperation project, projects under the Central Military Commission Science and Technology Commission's 173 Key Program and Innovation Bureau, and a Wuhan disciplinary special support project. He has published more than 100 SCI-indexed papers in journals including Nature Communications, Materials Science and Engineering: R: Reports, Acta Materialia, Corrosion Science, Journal of Materials Science & Technology, and Scripta Materialia, with an H-index of 47, and holds 15 authorized Chinese invention patents. His honors include the 2019 Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the Amorphous/High-Entropy Alloys Branch of the Chinese Materials Research Society, a Second Prize of the Ministry of Education Natural Science Award, a Second Prize of the National Teaching Achievement Award for Undergraduate Education, and a Grand Prize of the Hubei Provincial Teaching Achievement Award for Undergraduate Education. He serves on the editorial board of Surface & Coatings Technology and on the young editorial boards of Materials Futures, Journal of Materials Science & Technology, Materials Research Letters, and Corrosion Communications.

Prepared by: Wenqing Ruan

Typeset by: Chen Shifa

First Review and Proofreading: Ren Luyang

Second Review and Proofreading: Ma Jiang

Third Review and Proofreading: Zheng Chun