Zhao Pan

Assistant Professor | Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering

Zhao Pan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo and the Principal Investigator of the Interdisciplinary Fluid Physics Lab - Pan Lab. Prior to joining Waterloo, he worked at Utah State University and Florida Center for Advanced Aero-propulsion (FCAAP, FSU) as a postdoctoral fellow. His research interests span from fundamental fluid physics (e.g., jets, bubbles, droplets, and cavitation), micro/bio-fluids, to advanced fluid flow diagnostics.

Most of his studies are driven by curiosity and serve both academia and the community with creative ideas and broader social impact. Working with scientists and engineers from different fields, his multi-disciplinary fluid dynamics studies have been published in journals such as PNAS, Nature Plants, J. Fluid Mech, Phys. Rev. Fluids, Phys. Fluids, and Soft Matter, etc. His work has also been featured on journal covers (Nature, Plants, Soft Matter), editor’s picks, and in 40+ leading media outlets (e.g., Science, Nature, The Washington Post, EurekAlert!, etc.). 

Selected Publications:

• Xu P, Liu S, Z Zuo, Pan Z. (2021). On the criteria of large cavitation bubbles in a tube during a transient process, Journal of Fluid Mechanics. Cambridge University Press, 913, p. R6.
• Pan Z, Zhang Y, Gustavsson J, Hickey JP, Cattafesta L. (2020). Unscented Kalman filter (UKF) based nonlinear parameter estimation for a turbulent boundary layer: a data assimilation framework. Measurement Science and Technology.
• Pan Z., Kiyama A, Tagawa Y, Daily J, Thomson S, Hurd R, Truscott T*. (2017). Cavitation onset caused by acceleration. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 32(114): 8470-8474.