Rate My Professor Jin Li

Dr Jin Li is a Lecturer in soft matter and microfluidic engineering in the School of Engineering at Cardiff University. He earned his PhD from the School of Engineering at Cardiff University between 2012 and 2015, with a thesis titled 'A novel, planar, microfluidic junction for multiphase flow, exemplified through the production of fusion energy targets, encapsulated mouse neuron stem cells and multi-compartmental capsules.' He also holds BEng degrees from the School of Engineering at Cardiff University (2010-2012) and from North China Electrical Power University in Beijing, China (2008-2012). His career includes serving as a researcher co-investigator on the EU-H2020 project 'Artificial Cells with Distributed Cores' (PN 824060) from 2019 to 2022 and on the NRN Wales project 'Laser and microfluidic manufacture of novel bio-diagnostic platforms' from 2015 to 2018, both at Cardiff School of Engineering. From 2018 to 2019, he was a postdoctoral research associate on the project 'Exosomes characterization in fluidic environment' at King’s College London. Since 2023, he has been Lecturer and theme leader of the Complex Nanofluid and Soft Matter Engineering group.

Jin Li's research centres on the science and applications of microfluidics and soft matter, with expertise in droplet microfluidics for precisely controlling chemical reactions and biological processes within complex emulsions. His multidisciplinary approach combines numerical modelling and practical experiments across inertial fusion energy target fabrication, brain organoids and tumour spheroids, integrated multi-material microfluidic device design and fabrication, biophysics of lipid bilayer membranes including mechanosensitive protein pore reconstitution and gating, and bottom-up artificial cell creation. He was a finalist for the Young Scientist Award at the Microsystems & Nanoengineering Young Scientist Award Summit 2022. Key publications include 'Dual-stimuli magnetic drug nanoparticles for chemoimmunotherapy: Magnetically driven, charge-reversal enhanced tumour penetration and pH-triggered drug release' (Chemical Engineering Journal, 2026), 'Designing and integrating microfluidic electrodes for biosensing and micromanipulation' (Device, 2026), 'Manipulation of encapsulated artificial phospholipid membranes using sub-micellar lysolipid concentrations' (Communications Chemistry, 2024), 'Building programmable multicompartment artificial cells with lipid membranes and DNA triggers' (Nature Communications, 2022), and '3D-printed microfluidic-microwave device for droplet network formation and characterisation' (Lab on a Chip, 2024). His work contributes to developing precision engineered biomimetic 'Living Machines' for applications in new materials, medicine, soft robots, agriculture, energy, and AI.