Taeyul Theo Choi

Tae-Youl Choi
Professor
Undergraduate MEEN Program Coordinator
Discovery Park F115N
940-565-2198
Tae-Youl.Choi@unt.edu
Faculty Profile | Website | Research Profile | Google Scholar |
Research focus: Thermo-Fluids
  • Education
    • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, May 2002
      Dissertation: Femtosecond Pulsed Laser Processing of Electronic Materials: Fundamentals and Micro/Nano-scale Applications 
      Advisor: Dr. Costas Grigoropoulos
    • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, Korea, Feb 1997
      Dissertation: Evaporative Heat Transfer of HFC Refrigerants in Horizontal Tube
      Advisor: Dr. Minsoo Kim
    •  B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, Korea, Aug 1994
  • Biography

    Taeyul Theo Choi is an associate professor in UNT’s Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering at the University of North Texas. His research interests include thermal and fluid science in terms of micro and nanoscale. His recent research also includes acoustic wave propagation through functional nanomaterials. He has published more than 40 referred journal papers and his research is funded by a variety of funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation, industry and international funds.

    Choi received his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University in Korea, and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Senior Scientist and lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich before joining UNT in 2006. Choi also has served as a committee member on ASME K-15 committee and chaired/organized numerous workshops and conferences.

  • Research

    Dr. Choi’s research group focuses on micro/nanoscale thermal transport phenomena. In specific, he is interested in thermal conductivity in 1-D (such as carbon nanotubes), 2-D (e.g., graphene), and 3-D material systems including biological cells. The cellular level temperature characterization revealed temperature rise during laser irradiation on a retinal pigment epithelium cells and through the thermal conductivity at cellular level, he discovered that the thermal conductivity of cancer cells is lower than that of normal cells. Here are a few topics of his research.

    • Cellular level thermal conductivity for early cancer detection
    • Nanoscale thermal characterization
    • Interfacial thermal resistance
    • Nanocomposite membrane for dehumidification application
    • Femtosecond laser material processing

     

  • Honors and Awards
    • GOALI: EFRI NewLaw: Non-reciprocal effects and Anderson localization of acoustic and elastic waves in periodic structures with broken P-symmetry of the unit cell for encryption, 11/1/2017-10/30/2021, National Science Foundation, $1,997,222 (Co-PI, Dr. Choi’s share is ~$400k)
    • Design and Analysis of Desiccating Nanocomposite Membrane for Optimal Heat and Mass Transfer, 6/1/2016 – 5/31/2019, MOTIE-KIMM, $247,826 (single PI)