FACULTY Q&A
DR. YU ZHANG
Professor, Department of Preventive and Restorative Sciences Director for Restorative Research, Penn Dental Medicine
What is your area of research? What are some of the current projects that you are working on? My main research area is dental materials, more specifically ceramic-based dental materials. Here are some of the current projects we are working on: 1 D esigning next-generation graded materials with improved damage resistance and functionalities 2 D eveloping nanostructured materials for dental and biomedical devices 3 Imaging through radiopaque zirconia dental restorations 4 E lucidating competing damage modes in all-ceramic restorations under mastication 5 C haracterizing the wear and fatigue behavior of dental ceramics 6 I mproving the fracture resistance of veneered prostheses through the reduction of deleterious residual tensile stresses
How and why did you get involved in research? After completing my bachelors in physics, I taught physics and electrical engineering in technical schools and subsequently worked at Pacific Dunlop for several years. I later realized that this type of work was not my true calling, and I could not envision myself running this route for the foreseeable future. I decided to go back to school, pursuing a Master’s of Science in condensed matter physics at La Trobe University in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. My very first research project was to grow II-VI semiconductor thin films for blue-green laser diodes using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) technology. It was very cool; we were depositing zinc and selenium layers of thicknesses in the angstrom range.
What do you enjoy most about the process? • I dentifying the research question. • P roviding solutions to a research problem; these days, it is often a collaborative effort that is efficient, engaging, and fruitful. • A cquiring new knowledge and wisdom through this process not just from our lab results, but also by seeing data through different team members’ eyes. • F inally, we love having an excuse to celebrate when it all pays off.
What qualities do you think are important to have as a researcher? • • • • •
I nitiative Persistence C ommitment A ttention to detail O pen mindedness
What advice would you give students who are interested in research? • • • •
P lan experiments carefully C onduct a pretest C arefully document experimental procedures and results R emain calm when unexpected events and results occur
VERNON BRIGHTMAN RESEARCH SOCIETY 7
