June 23, 2025
By Mikey Fuller

Zhuomin Zhang, J. Erskine Love, Jr. Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has received the 2025 Elsevier/JQSRT Poynting Award on Radiative Transfer.

Administered by the editorial board and publisher of the Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer (JQSRT), the award recognizes Zhang for his seminal contributions to the field of nanoscale thermal radiation, student mentoring, and international collaborations.

“I am honored and humbled to be recognized by the 2025 Poynting Award on Radiative Transfer and to join the list of renowned experts in the field of radiative heat transfer,” Zhang said.

The prestigious award, established in 2012 in honor of John Henry Poynting, honors the lifetime achievements of individual scientists who have made landmark, original contributions to the research field of radiative transfer and its applications.

Zhang serves as the director of the Nanoscale Thermal Radiation Laboratory at Georgia Tech and is a pioneering researcher in nanoscale thermal radiation. The applications of his work range from optoelectronics and infrared detectors to materials processing control, noncontact thermometry, energy conversion and harvesting, and thermal management.

In addition to developing a strong research program, Zhang and his students have made influential contributions to the understanding and application of thermal emission and near-field heat transfer in nanostructured materials. His group has conducted important theoretical and experimental research on near-field radiative heat transfer for thermophotovoltaic energy harvesting and radiative cooling applications.

Zhang has also helped advance the field by mentoring students and postdoctoral researchers and by serving the broader scientific community. Many of his former students and mentees have gone on to successful careers in academia and industry. Under his leadership, several international conferences and workshops have been established to focus on nano- and microscale heat transfer and thermal radiation.

“I very much enjoy working with my students and colleagues to do research in micro- and nanoscale heat transfer, focusing on the thermophysical properties of micro/nanostructures and nanoscale thermal radiation,” Zhang said. “I am grateful for the passion and creativity that my students have shown in their research.”

Before joining Georgia Tech, Zhang was a guest scientist in the Optical Technology Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and a faculty member at the University of Florida. He earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, in 1982 and 1985, respectively. He earned a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992.

The award was presented at the 11th International Symposium on Radiative Transfer (RAD-25), held June 15-20 in Kuşadasi, Türkiye.