Short Biography

Zhongyu Cai is a full professor at BUAA. He received his PhD degree in 2012 from National University of Singapore. After graduation, Dr. Cai joined the Asher research group as a postdoctoral fellow in 2012 and he was appointed as a research assistant Professor in 2017 at University of Pittsburgh. Later, he moved to BUAA and has been appointed as a Professor at the School of Instrumentation & Optoelectronic Engineering. He is also an adjunct Professor at Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering and the School of Space and Environment, BUAA. His research mainly focuses on colloids self-assembly, photonic crystals and tunable photonic devices for sensing applications, portable sensing devices, flexible and wearable sensors and their applications in environmental and health monitoring. To date, he has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers with >3600 citations and H-index of 30.

Research Area

1. Photonic Sensors

2. Flexible and Wearable Sensors

3. Portable Sensors and Spectrometers

Courses 

1. Smart Materials

2. Dancing with Light: Stepping into the Iridescent World of Photonic Crystals

3. Scientific Writing and Reporting

Papers & Books 

1. Jiao, F.; Cai, Z.*, A Portable Photobleaching-Resistant Photothermal Sensor for High-Sensitivity and On-Site Biomarker Detection. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical 2025, 139168.

2. Quan, J.; Song, Y.; Li, H.; Zhao, F.; Zhou, L.; Cai, Z.*; Wan, Y.* Effects of Building Blocks and Defects on the Performance of Two-Dimensional Photonic Crystal Sensors for Black Liquor Detection. Journal of Analysis and Testing 2025, 9 (1), 50-60.

3. Ma, P.; Zhang, H.; Cui, M.; Zhang, Y. *; Cai, Z.* Two-dimensional photonic hydrogel aptasensors for selective detection of pesticide carbendazim. Microchemical Journal 2025, 219, 115970.

4. Zhao, F.; Liu, M.; Guo, H.; Wang, Y.; Zhang, Y.; He, M.; Cai, Z.* Stimuli-responsive hydrogels based on protein/peptide and their sensing applications. Progress in Materials Science 2025, 148, 101355.

5. Zhao, F.; Liu, X.; Li, X.; Cai, Z.*; Zhang, Y. Two-dimensional photonic crystal acetylcholinesterase hydrogel and organohydrogel sensors for efficient detection of organophosphorus compounds. Biosensors and Bioelectronics 2025, 267, 116845.

6. Jiao, F.; Cai, Z.* A smartphone-based nanoenzyme-modulated aptasensor using an infrared camera for rapid detection of kanamycin. Chemical Engineering Journal 2024, 481, 148699.

7. Zhang, A.; Jiang, Z.; Zhang, S.; Lan, P.; Miao, N.; Chen, W.; Huang, N.; Tian, X.; Liu, Y.; Cai, Z. * Coral-shaped Mn-CuS with hierarchical pores and crystalline defects for high-efficiency H2O2 production via electrocatalytic two-electron reduction. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 2023, 331, 122721.

8. Song, F.; Tian, J.; Zhang, P.; Ma, C.; Sun, Y.; Feng, Y.; Zhang, T.; Lei, Y.; He, Y.; Cai, Z.; et al. A Novel Feature Engineering Method Based on Latent Representation Learning for Radiomics: Application in NSCLC Subtype Classification. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics 2024, 28 (1), 31-41.

9. Liu, R.; Cai, Z. *; Zhang, Q.; Yuan, H.; Zhang, G.; Yang, D. a. Colorimetric two-dimensional photonic crystal biosensors for label-free detection of hydrogen peroxide. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical 2022, 354, 131236.

10. Cai, Z. *; Li, Z.; Ravaine, S.; He, M.; Song, Y.; Yin, Y.; Zheng, H.; Teng, J.; Zhang, A. From colloidal particles to photonic crystals: advances in self-assembly and their emerging applications. Chemical Society Reviews 2021, 50 (10), 5898-5951.

11. Cai, Z.; Sasmal, A.; Liu, X. *; Asher, S. A. * Responsive Photonic Crystal Carbohydrate Hydrogel Sensor Materials for Selective and Sensitive Lectin Protein Detection. ACS Sensors 2017, 2 (10), 1474-1481.

12. Cai, Z.; Luck, L. A.; Punihaole, D.; Madura, J. D.; Asher, S. A. * Photonic crystal protein hydrogel sensor materials enabled by conformationally induced volume phase transition. Chemical Science 2016, 7 (7), 4557-4562.

13. Cai, Z.; Kwak, D. H.; Punihaole, D.; Hong, Z.; Velankar, S. S.; Liu, X.; Asher, S. A. A Photonic Crystal Protein Hydrogel Sensor for Candida albicans. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2015, 54 (44), 13036-13040.

14. Cai, Z.; Smith, N. L.; Zhang, J.-T.; Asher, S. A. Two-Dimensional Photonic Crystal Chemical and Biomolecular Sensors. Analytical Chemistry 2015, 87 (10), 5013-5025.

15. Cai, Z.; Zhang, J.-T.; Xue, F.; Hong, Z.; Punihaole, D.; Asher, S. A. 2D Photonic Crystal Protein Hydrogel Coulometer for Sensing Serum Albumin Ligand Binding. Analytical Chemistry 2014, 86 (10), 4840-4847.