Sun Bo

Dr. Bo Sun currently holds the position of Tenured Associate Professor at the Institute of Materials Research, Tsinghua SIGS. Concurrently, he serves as Deputy Director of the Guangdong Key Laboratory of Thermal Management Engineering and Materials, where he plays a key role in advancing the lab’s strategic research agenda in thermal science and engineering.

From 2016 to 2018, Dr. Sun pursued postdoctoral training in the Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering at the California Institute of Technology, working with Prof. Austin Minnich. Prior to this, he earned his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 2016. His academic foundation was built at Shandong University, where he completed a M.S. in Chemistry and a B.S. in Physics, laying a cross-disciplinary groundwork for his later research.

Dr. Sun is a recognized researcher in thermal sciences. His research focuses on unraveling fundamental mechanisms of thermal transport in semiconductors, with key investigations into:

Novel thermal transport phenomena driven by phonon nonequilibrium;

Electron-phonon coupling effects in functional materials;

Quantum phenomena governing thermal transport.

His work has made significant contributions to the field, with publications in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals including Nature Materials and Physical Review Letters.

Jan. 2012 - Nov. 2016, Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore

Sep. 2008 – Jun. 2011, M.S. in Chemistry, Shandong University

Aug. 2004 – Jun.2008, M.S. in Physics, Shandong University

Jan. 2022 – Present, Associate Professor, Tsinghua SIGS

Apr. 2019 – Dec. 2021, Assistant Professor, Tsinghua SIGS

Jan. 2019 – Apr. 2019, Research Scientist, Tsinghua SIGS 

Sep. 2016 – Aug. 2018, Postdoctoral Scholar, California Institute of Technology 

Guangdong Key Laboratory of Thermal Management Engineering and Materials  Deputy Director

Communications Materials  Editorial Board Member

86000023, Thermal Physics and Engineering, 2020-present, Fall, SIGS

86000893, Nanoscale Energy Transport, 2020-present, Spring, SIGS

Yufeng Wang (2019), Yizhe Liu (2020) Qinshu Li (2020), Shasha Huo (2020), Doudou Gao (2021), Rongjie He (2021)

Nanoscale heat transfer, lattice dynamics, phonon transport, pump-probe spectroscopy

广东省重大（基石）项目，500万元，超越半导体导热极限的集成电路散热

深圳市优秀青年基金，200万元，半导体材料的导热

基金委国际（地区）合作项目，200万元，基于器件应用的相变材料热物性表征

[1] Yizhe Liu and Bo Sun. Electronic heat tunneling enhances thermal conductance across metal-insulator-semiconductor junction. Physical Review Letters 2025, 135 (20), 206304.

[2] Yufeng Wang, Bo Sun et al. Proton collective quantum tunneling induces anomalous thermal conductivity of ice under pressure. Physical Review Letters 2024, 132(26), 264101.

[3] Qinshu Li, Bo Sun et al. Inelastic phonon transport across atomically sharp metal/semiconductor interfaces. Nature Communications 2022, 13, 4901.

[4] Bo Sun, Shanyuan Niu, R. P. Hermann, et al. High frequency atomic tunneling yields ultralow and glass-like thermal conductivity in chalcogenide single crystals. Nature Communications 2020, 11, 6039.

[5] B. Sun, G. Haunschild, C. Polanco, J. Ju, L. Lindsay, G. Koblmüller, Y.K. Koh. Dislocation-induced thermal transport anisotropy in single-crystal group-III nitride films. Nature Materials 2019, 18(2): 136-140.