DrQiran Cai

Dr Qiran Cai is an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow at the Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University. He obtained his PhD from Deakin University in 2017 and was awarded the prestigious Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in 2017, followed by an ARC DECRA Fellowship in 2022.

His research focuses on understanding and controlling heat transport to overcome overheating in next-generation electronic systems. He develops advanced materials and interface engineering strategies that enable efficient thermal management for applications including AI computing, data centres and power electronic systems.

His research has made significant contributions to the fundamental understanding of boron nitride nanosheets, including their adsorption behaviour, mechanical properties, Raman characteristics and thermal transport properties. These discoveries have provided the scientific foundation for boron nitride-based thermal management materials and ultra-sensitive sensing technologies. Building on this work, he is expanding his research to boron nitride, diamond and other high-thermal-conductivity materials for advanced heat spreaders and thermal interface materials.

Dr Cai has published more than 60 research outputs, including 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, one edited book and nine book chapters. His publications have attracted more than 6,000 citations (h-index 30) and include multiple Highly Cited Papers, with work published in journals such as Science Advances, Physical Review Letters, Advanced Functional Materials and Angewandte Chemie. He currently leads an ARC DECRA project and an AEA Ignite project and serves as a Co-Investigator on an ARC Discovery Project.

He serves as an Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports, an ARC Detailed Assessor, and a reviewer for leading international journals including Nature Communications, Advanced Materials and Advanced Functional Materials. He welcomes collaborations with academic and industry partners interested in thermal management, advanced functional materials and next-generation electronic technologies.