Rate My Professor Fei Zhang

Fei Zhang serves as an assistant professor on the tenure track BOF (BOFZAP) at KU Leuven, holding a joint 50% appointment in the Department of Materials Engineering within the Faculty of Engineering Science and the Department of Oral Health Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine. A materials scientist by training, she obtained her B.S. degree from the University of Science and Technology, Beijing in 2009, followed by her master's degree in 2011 and PhD in materials engineering in 2015 from KU Leuven. Following her doctoral studies, Zhang spent one year in 2017 at the MATEIS laboratory at INSA-Lyon, France. She returned to KU Leuven on an FWO postdoctoral fellowship, collaborating between the materials engineering and BIOMAT - Biomaterials research groups on additive manufacturing of bioinspired ceramics. Her doctoral research on the aging stability of dental zirconia garnered the 'Best PhD Thesis' award from the Belgian Ceramic Society and the 'Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad' award from the Chinese Government. Additionally, she has been honored with the Global Young Bioceramicist Award from the American Ceramic Society.

Zhang's research focuses on developing reliable bioceramics with enhanced clinical longevity, encompassing bioinspired dental ceramics, damage-tolerant and deformable zirconia for dental implants, multi-material additive manufacturing of dental ceramics, surface engineering of biomaterials, and tooth enamel-inspired interdisciplinary investigations. As a research professor in the BIOMAT group, her research lines include additive manufacturing, dental ceramics, and resin-based composites. Notable publications include 'The impact of mechanical recycling on material and process characteristics in alumina powder injection molding' (Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 2026), 'Fracture toughness evaluation of zirconia ceramics using nonlinear dynamic finite element analysis' (Journal of Prosthodontic Research, 2026), 'Acrylate-based slurry development and evaluation for digital light processing of zirconia ceramics' (Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 2026), 'Effect of cooling rate on the microstructural and mechanical properties of speed-sintered monolithic zirconia' (Dental Materials, 2025), and 'Femtosecond laser texturing of crack-free zirconia composites: Texturing of pre-sintered ceramics and microcrack self-healing' (Journal of Materials Science & Technology, 2025). Her contributions have advanced ceramics for dental applications and innovative manufacturing techniques.