Wei Zhai

Dr. Wei Zhai is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where she leads the Nature-inspired Advanced Engineering Group. Her team employs the 4Ms approach—Multiscale Manufacturing of Multifunctional Materials—which focuses on controlling material structures across various scales to enhance mechanical properties and integrate multifunctionality. Her research spans soft materials, metamaterials and composites, with applications in flexible electronics, biomedical devices, structural engineering, and acoustic and electromagnetic applications. Since joining NUS in 2019, her group has published in top-tier journals such as Nature Communications, Science Advances, Advanced Materials, Materials Today, Advanced Functional Materials, etc.

Dr. Wei Zhai received her B.Eng from the University of Science and Technology Beijing in 2011 and her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2015. Following her doctoral studies, she worked as a Research Scientist at the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, A*STAR, until 2019. She is currently the Deputy Director for the Additive Manufacturing Centre (AM.NUS) at NUS. She also serves as an Editor for Materials & Design and as a Section Editor on Porous Materials for Materials Today Communications.