Dr Zhenyu Jason Zhang is a Professor of Soft Matter Engineering at the School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham. He holds a PhD in Polymer Physics (University of Sheffield), and has over 20 years’ experience and expertise in investigating soft matter under tribological conditions, underpinning Formulation Engineering and Healthcare Technology. As a Principle Investigator (PI), he has attracted research funds from national funding bodies, industrial sponsors, and international collaboration. His group has a broad interest around the design and characterisation of  soft matter at surfaces and interfaces, e.g. their response to external stimuli, molecular architecture design, linking structure-properties from nano- to micro-scales. His unique approach of combining soft matter and tribology was established on natural products (cotton fabric etc.), subsequently to a broad range of synthetic surface coatings, and was further extended to formulated products, chemical processes, and innovative medical intervention.