Wenjie Xia

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Xia Research Group

Education

Ph.D., Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, 2016

B.S., Civil Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 2011

Interest Areas

• Multiscale Modeling
• Structural Mechanics & Materials
• Polymers and Nanocomposites
• Computational Design & Optimization
• Biological and Bioinspired Materials
• AI, Machine Learning & Data-Driven Modeling

Selected Awards and Honors

• ASME Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering Award, 2024 
• NSF CAREER Award, 2023
• ACS PMSE Young Investigator Award, 2023
• Advanced Materials Rising Star Award, 2023
• NDSU College of Engineering Early Career Research Excellence Award, 2022
• ND-ACES Early Career Faculty Award, 2021
• NIST-MML Accolade for Technical Excellence, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2019
• Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) Fellowship, 2016
• APS Frank J. Padden Award Finalist, 2016
• Walter Murphy Fellowship, Northwestern University, 2011
• CWRU Crag J. Miller Award for “Outstanding Academic Achievement”, 2011

Publications

For the full list of publications, please see Dr. Xia’s Google Scholar profile. 

Selected Publications (Over 120 peer-reviewed journal articles; 1 book edited; 5 book chapters; h-index = 36)  

• Z. Wu, M. N. Salimi, D. C. Webster, A. B. Croll, W. Xia*, “Molecular Insights into the Interfacial Adhesion and Chain Adsorption of Silicone Polymers via Nanoindentation”, Macromolecules, 2025, 58, 18, 9763-9775. (Cover Article) 
• Z. Cao, Z. Li, A. Awada, S. A. Tolba, M. Mooney, Y. Wang, Y.-C. Chiu, S. Rondeau-Gagné*, W. Xia*, X. Gu*, “Approaching Highly Stable Optoelectronic Device Operation at Elevated Temperature by Locking Backbone Torsion of Conjugated Polymers“, Matter, 2025, 8, 102195.
• Z. Li, S. A. Tolba, Y. Wang, A. Alesadi, W. Xia*, “Modeling-Driven Materials by Design for Conjugated Polymers: Insights into Optoelectronic, Conformational, and Thermomechanical Properties”, Chemical Communications, 2024, 60, 11625-11641. (Feature Article)
• Y. Liao, Z. Li, L. Chen, A. B. Croll, W. Xia, “Crumpling Defective Graphene Sheets”, Nano Letters, 2023, 23(8), 3637-3644. (Cover Article)
• Z. Cao, S. A. Tobla, Z. Li, G. T. Mason, Y. Wang, C. Do, S. Rondeau-Gagné, W. Xia, X. Gu, “Molecular Structure and Conformational Design of Donor-Acceptor Conjugated Polymers to Enable Predictable Optoelectronic Property”, Advanced Materials, 2023, 35, 41, 2302178.
• S. A. Tolba, W. Xia, “Molecular Insights into the Hydration of Zwitterionic Polymers”, Molecular Systems Design & Engineering, 2023, 8, 1040-1048. 
• X. Zheng, Y. Guo, J. Douglas, W. Xia, “Competing Effects of Cohesive Energy and Cross-link Density on the Segmental Dynamics and Mechanical Properties of Cross-linked Polymers”, Macromolecules, 2022, 55(22), 9990-10004.
• A. Croll, Y. Liao, Z. Li, W. Jayawardana, T. Elder, W. Xia, “Sticky Crumpled Matter”, Matter, 2022, 5(6), 1792-1805. (Cover Article)
• A. Alesadi, Z. Cao, Z. Li, S. Zhang, H. Zhao, X. Gu, W. Xia, “Machine Learning Prediction of Glass Transition Temperature of Conjugated Polymers from Chemical Structure”, Cell Reports Physical Science, 2022, 3, 10091.
• Z. Li, Y. Liao, Y. Zhang, Yida Zhang, W. Xia, “Microstructure and Dynamics of Nanocellulose Films: Insights into the Deformational Behavior”, Extreme Mechanics Letters, 2022, 50, 101519.
• S. Ghazanfari, H.M.N. Fasial, K. Katti, D. Katti, W. Xia, “A Coarse-Grained Model for the Mechanical Behavior of Na-Montmorillonite Clay”, Langmuir, 2022, 38(16), 4859-4869. (Cover Article)
• A. Alesadi, W. Xia, “Understanding the Role of Cohesive Interaction in Mechanical Behavior of a Glassy Polymer”, Macromolecules, 2020, 53(7), 2754-2763.
• W. Xia, N. Hansoge, W.-S. Xu, F. Phelan, S. Keten, J. F. Douglas, “Energy Renormalization for Coarse-Graining Polymers Having Different Segmental Structures”, Science Advances, 2019, 5(4), eaav4683.
• W. Xia, V.F. Lara, S. Keten, J. Douglas, “Structure and Dynamics of a Graphene Melt”, ACS Nano, 2018, 12(6), 5427-5435.
• W. Xia, X. Qin, Y. Zhang, R. Sinko, S. Keten, “Achieving Enhanced Interfacial Adhesion and Dispersion in Cellulose Nanocomposites via Amorphous Interfaces”, Macromolecules, 2018, 51(24), 10304-10311. 

Book

• W. Xia, L. Ruiz Pestana, “Fundamentals of Multiscale Modeling of Structural Materials”, Edited by W. Xia, L. Ruiz Pestana, Elsevier Inc. 2023, ISBN: 9780128230213.

Primary Strategic Research Area

Advanced Materials & Manufacturing

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