Dr Wei Wang | UNSW Research

My Expertise

Fire Safety Engineering; Flame Retardant Materials; Antistatic Materials; Bio-inspired Fire Resistant Coatings; Lithium Battery Safety; Fire simulation and modelling; Molecule dynamics of functional polymer composites.

Keywords

fire

flame retardance

battery energy storage system

battery materials

biopolymers and renewable polymers

polymer matrix composites

layer-by-layer polyelectrolyte deposition

organic-inorganic hybrid composites

computational simulation

numerical analysis

Fields of Research (FoR)

Fire safety engineering, Composite and hybrid materials, Functional materials, Polymers and plastics, Nanofabrication, growth and self assembly, Inorganic materials (incl. nanomaterials)

Biography

Dr. Wei Wang is a Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow at the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. His research focuses on sustainable and smart materials, energy storage safety, infrastructure resilience, and advanced manufacturing. With over a decade of experience in fire safety engineering and materials science, he aims to develop next-generation fire-resistant, energy-efficient, and environmentally sustainable technologies. Dr. Wang earned dual PhDs in Materials and Manufacturing Engineering from the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and the University of Science & Technology of China (USTC) in 2019. That same year, he joined the ARC Fire Training Centre at UNSW, where he expanded his research into bio-inspired flame retardants, fire-resistant polymer composites, and fire safety in new energy battery materials. His work bridges fundamental research with real-world applications, as evidenced by his active collaborations with industry partners in fire-resistant polymer foams and government agencies such as Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) on electric vehicle fire safety. Dr. Wang has published over 110 peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapters, two conference papers, and two granted patents, accumulating over 4,000 citations (Google Scholar H-index: 39). His research impact is recognised globally, earning him a place among Stanford University’s Top 2% Highly Cited Scientists (2021–2023). In 2022, he was awarded the prestigious ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA 2023) for his project "Multifunctional Biomass Coatings for Electrostatic Induced Fire Hazards”. Beyond fire safety, his research vision extends to infrastructure resilience, net-zero energy solutions, energy-efficient materials, and smart sensing technologies. His interdisciplinary expertise includes: Sustainable and smart materials for energy storage, green manufacturing, and resilient infrastructure; Net-zero energy solutions, including thermal insulation, waste heat recovery, and energy-efficient composites; Smart and adaptive materials with self-healing, self-cleaning, and multifunctional properties; Energy storage safety, particularly in fire-safe lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen fuel applications; Advanced materials modelling and AI-driven simulation for optimising material properties.

My Grants

2023: Wei Wang, Guan Heng Yeoh, UNSW MME School Infrastructure Scheme. $50,000 AUD
2023: Wei Wang. University of New South Wales-Faculty Matching Funds (Totalling $90.000 k AUD), Grant number: RG230135.
2022: Wei Wang. the ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA 2023). Titled “Multifunctional Biomass Coatings for Electrostatic Induced Fire Hazards”. (Totalling $436.554k), Funder reference number: DE230100180
2021: Anthony Chun Yin Yuen, Guan Heng Yeoh, Shaun Chan, Wei Wang, Eric Wai Ming Lee, Nadia Chek Lun Chow, UNSW International Seed Grant 2021. Titled “Artificial Neural Network Modelling Integrated with Molecular Dynamics Data for Detailed Description of CFD Pyrolytic Process”. (Totalling $5k)

My Qualifications

Sept 2014 to Oct 2019 | Doctor of Engineering, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, the City University of Hong Kong
Aug 2013 to Jul 2019 | Doctor of Fire Safety Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, the University of Science & Technology of China

My Awards

2023 | The World Top 2% Highly Cited Scientists, Stanford University
2022 | The “People’s Choice” Award, UNSW ECAN Committee.
2023 | ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, ARC DECRA Fellow, Australian Research Council
2022 | The World Top 2% Highly Cited Scientists, Stanford University
2021 | The World Top 2% Highly Cited Scientists, Stanford University
2019 | Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Nomination Award of USTC, USTC
2017 | the Pollyanna Chu Excellent Doctoral Scholarship, Chinese Academy of Sciences
2017 | Second-Class Academic Scholarship, USTC
2016 | the China National Scholarship for Doctoral Student, Ministry of Education
2016 | First-Class Academic Scholarship, USTC
2016 | Peter Ho Conference Scholarship, CityU
2015 | ‘Dushu Lake’ Scholarship in USTC CityU Joint Advanced Research Centre

My Research Activities

Dr Wang’s research focuses on the following areas:

Sustainable and Smart Materials: Development of biomass-based, recyclable, and multifunctional materials for applications in energy storage, construction, and advanced manufacturing.
Infrastructure Resilience and Sustainability: Designing high-performance, durable, and low-carbon materials to enhance climate resilience, energy efficiency, and circular economy adoption in infrastructure.
Net-Zero Energy Solutions: Advancing energy-efficient coatings, thermal insulation materials, and waste heat recovery technologies to contribute to net-zero carbon goals.
Smart and Adaptive Composites: Engineering self-healing, self-cleaning, and intelligent materials with real-time sensing and actuation for enhanced safety and durability.
Energy Storage and Battery Safety: Innovating fire-safe and high-performance battery materials to improve the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of electric vehicles and grid storage.
Advanced Materials Modelling and Simulation: Utilising molecular dynamics, density functional theory (DFT), and AI-driven modelling to optimise material design and performance at multiple scales.
Thermal Management and Energy Efficiency: Enhancing heat transfer, phase change materials, and passive cooling strategies for smart buildings, EVs, and industrial applications.
AI-Driven Material Engineering: Integrating machine learning, IoT, and digital twins to predict material behaviour, optimise manufacturing, and improve infrastructure monitoring.
Green Manufacturing and Circular Economy: Developing low-carbon, biodegradable, and recyclable materials to minimise waste, reduce environmental impact, and promote sustainable production.
Multifunctional Protective Systems: Designing fire-resistant, EMI-shielding, antibacterial, and high-strength composites for aerospace, defence, and advanced engineering applications.

My Editorial Activities

Guest Editor, Editorial Board, Energy Materials (Impact factor: 11.8), Special Issue: Advancements in Safety Materials for Next-Generation Energy Technologies
Guest Editor, Polymers (IF: 5.0), Special Issue: Flame-Retardant Polymeric Mater: Synthesis Application
Topic Editor, Molecules (Impact Factor: 4.6), Special Issue: Natural Polymers for Fire Safety
Topic Editor, Polymers (IF: 5.0), Special Issue: Advanced Polymers for High-Performance Batteries

My Research Supervision

Supervision keywords

computational modelling

Areas of supervision

Topics of Research:

This project aims to develop an antistatic and fire-resistant spray biomass coating by self-assembling flame-retardant biomass polyurea and electrically conductive nanomaterials, to address the electrostatic and flammability issues associated with the polymeric matrices. To develop this advanced biomass coatings, four specific objectives will be addressed in this proposal:

-Design, synthesise and characterise biomass flame-retardant particles and conductive nanomaterials.
-Prepare antistatic and fire-resistant biomass waterborne coatings by self-assembling flame-retardant polyurea and conductive inorganic nanosheets, followed by application on polymer substrates.
-Evaluate the antistatic property, mechanical performance, and fire-resistance of the biomass coatings and the treated polymer substrates, including the antistatic and flame retardancy mechanisms.
-Understand and establish the component-structure-properties correlations of the conductive and fire-resistant biomass coatings for the polymer substrates.

Minimal requirements:

Majored in Materials Science, Chemical Science, Mechanical Engineering, and other related fields.

Interested in research areas: polymer composites, flame retardants, inorganic materials, organic synthesis, conductive polymers/inorganics, and multifunctional bio-inspired coatings.
Course marks: required.
IELTS: required.

Other expectations:

Has hands-on experience and skills about molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model; battery safety materials; C4D; Maya; COMSOL Multiphysics;