Dr. Teng Cui

Biography

Teng Cui is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo and the director of the Extreme Mechanics Energy Materials Lab (EM)² Lab. His research focuses on the fundamental understanding of material failure across multiple length and time scales under extreme conditions, with a practical aim of designing reliable materials and devices for energy sustainability applications. His current research interests include solid-state batteries in extreme environments, nanomechanics of low-dimensional materials and interfaces, strain engineering of functional materials, and multi-scale multi-physics characterization techniques. Prior to joining the University of Waterloo, he was an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University's SLAC-Stanford Battery Center, where he investigated electro-chemo-mechanical coupling failure mechanisms in solid-state batteries. Teng earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto in 2020, where he developed an AFM-based method enabling mechanical fatigue studies of 2D materials. He also holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering (2016) and a Bachelor's degree in Engineering Mechanics (2014) from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Teng has authored more than 20 papers in high-impact journals including Nature Materials, Nature Energy, and Science Advances.

Research Interests

Experience