Yuyuan Zhao, professor of Ningbo University of Technology, and former Head of Department at Liverpool University, visited Professor Imre Orbulov, Dean of BME Faculty of Mechanical Engineering during his visit in Budapest at Feb 6., 2025.
How do
you like Budapest? Is it your first time here?
Actually, this is my second time. The first time when I visited Budapest, was 15 years ago, as a tourist that time. With my family, we travelled from Austria by train, to Budapest, for a brief visit, and then went to Czech Republic. This time we are staying here for 3 days. The weather is brilliant, also the buildings and the river Danube.
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| Left: Professor Yuyuan Zhao, right: Professor Imre Norbert Orbulov |
Please, tell us about your research field!
I research
porous metals, metal matrix syntactic foams and powder metallurgy, so two of my
three research fields are aligned with Professor Imre Orbulov, Dean of The
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, with whom we worked alongside of each other.
We frequently review each other’s papers as well.
After a PhD in Oxford, I was a post-doc at Birmingham University, then I moved
to Liverpool University, where I worked for 24 years as a professor. Two years ago I joined Ningbo University of
Technology and set up a laboratory there.
Are you planning a joint project with Professor Imre Orbulov?
Yes, we have already started collaborating with each other. The Hungarian and
Chinese governments have some funding schemes for joint projects, and we would
like to utilise these opportunities to strengthen our research collaborations in
the field of syntactic foams for impact energy absorption applications. I also
met Professor Péter János Szabó, Head of Department of Material Science and
Technology.
Professor Yuyuan Zhao graduated with a BEng in 1985 and
MSc in 1988 from Dalian University of Technology, China,
and a DPhil in Materials from University of Oxford in 1996. He was a
Lecturer at Dalian University of Technology from 1988 to 1991 and
a Research Fellow at University of Birmingham from 1995 to 1998.
He worked at University of Liverpool from 1998 to 2023 as a Lecturer,
Senior Lecturer, Reader, Professor and Head of Department. He joined
Ningbo University of Technology, China, in 2023. He pioneered the
Sintering and Dissolution Process (SDP) for manufacturing
aluminium foam, which inspired the subsequent developments of several
powder-based space-holder methods for manufacturing metal foams. Professor Zhao
is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, UK.
He was awarded the Ivor Jenkins Medal in 2015 for an outstanding
contribution to powder metallurgy in developing and commercialising innovative
powder based technologies for manufacturing metal foams. His current
research is focused on the manufacture, characterisation and
applications of porous metals and metal matrix syntactic foams. His hobby
is badminton.
László Benesóczky
