Current Members

Liheng Cai is the PI of Soft Biomatter Laboratory. He did his undergraduate in Physics at Lanzhou University, graduate work at UNC-Chapel Hill with Prof. Michael Rubinstein and Prof. Richard Boucher, and postdoctoral work at Harvard with Prof. David A. Weitz and Prof. Jeffrey Fredberg, and is now an Assistant Professor in School of Engineering and Applied Science at UVA, where he holds a joint appointment to Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Department of Chemical Engineering, and a courtesy appointment to Department of Biomedical Engineering.

In his free time, he likes to spend time with family, go to gym, run, play golf and Taiji. 

His work has been reconginized by North Carolina Impact Award, Harvard Postdoctoral Awards for Professional Development, and NSF CAREER Award. 

Riley joined the lab as a Ph.D. student in Fall 2020. He is from Dallas, Texas where he attended the University of Texas at Dallas as a Biomedical Engineering major. He is researching bacteria-mucus interactions in the respiratory system, factors that promote respiratory infections, and bacterial motility.

Riley enjoys playing basketball, football, and chess in his spare time. 

Email: rd7ut@virginia.edu

Myoeum Kim joined the lab in May 2021 as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Material Science and Engineering at UVA. She received her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Akron and her previous research was 3D printing natural rubber. She is now working on dynamics of associative polymers and 3D printing of adaptive soft materials.

Myoeum is from Korea. She spent her spare time with her dog, working out, and watching movies.

Email: mvn2ck@virginia.edu

Xiaoxiao Ma joined the lab in the Fall 2022 as a graduate student in Material Science and Engineering Department. She received her bachelor degree in Polymer Engineering at Donghua University in China and a Master degree in Bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Currently, she works on voxelated bioprinting of highly functional 3D tissue mimics. 

Email: gjy5pj@virginia.edu

Emmanuel Oduro joined the Soft Biomatter Lab in Fall 2023 as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He received  bachelor's degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Ghana, Legon. His bachelor's degree research focused on Fabricating Water Swellable Elastomers for advanced applications and currently he is working on designing polymer materials for advanced applications and 3D printing of Adaptive Soft materials (yet to be decided).

Emmanuel is from Ghana. He spends his free time working out and having a walk.

Email: vpe5dx@virginia.edu

Daniel Rau is a postdoctoral research associate that joined the Soft Biomatter Lab in Summer 2022 to work on developing the next generation of materials for Additive Manufacturing.

He did his undergraduate in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech. His graduate work was also in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech under the direction of Christopher B. Williams in the Design, Research, and Education for Additive Manufacturing Systems Lab. During his PhD he focused on developing new high-performance polymers for additive manufacturing and better understanding the physics of printing processes, areas he continues to focus on during his postdoctoral work.

In his free time, he likes to run and ride his bike. His work has been recognized by the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and the Macromolecules Innovation Institute at Virginia Tech.
Email: drau9@virginia.edu

Starting from spring 2020, Jinchang has been working in Cai Lab as a Ph.D. student at the department of Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to that, he received a bachelor degree in Polymer Materials and Engineering from Beijing University of Chemical Technology and a master degree from Johns Hopkins University; his previous research focused on biomaterials and therapeutics delivery. His research is focused on voxelated bioprinting of highly functional 3D tissue mimics. 

Jinchang comes from Suzhou, China. In his spare time, he is a PC enthusiast and an anime fan.

Email: jz5fy@virginia.edu