Nian X. Sun
Northeastern University · Engineering Management and Systems Engineering
Active 1974–2026
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About
Nian X. Sun is a College of Engineering Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at Northeastern University. He directs the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Integrated Ferroics and is the founder and Chief Technology Advisor of Winchester Technologies, LLC. His research focuses on magnetoelectric materials and devices for wireless power and biomedical sensing, as well as advanced materials and microsystems including gas sensors, magnetic sensors, neural magnetic sensing and stimulation, tunable RF/microwave components, and energy harvesting systems. Dr. Sun earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2002 and has worked as a Scientist at IBM and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. In 2025, he served as Head of the Corporate Research Center at Midea Group, overseeing the R&D of approximately 600 scientists. His achievements have been recognized with numerous honors, including the W.M. Keck Foundation Award, Humboldt Research Award, Søren Buus Outstanding Research Award, NSF CAREER Award, and ONR Young Investigator Award. He has authored over 400 peer-reviewed publications, holds 21 US patents, and has delivered more than 200 invited presentations at international conferences and seminars. Dr. Sun is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, IEEE, and the American Physical Society.
Research topics
- Engineering
- Materials science
- Physics
- Optoelectronics
- Electrical engineering
- Nanotechnology
- Acoustics
- Computer Science
- Composite material
- Optics
Selected publications
IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters · 2020 · 233 citations
Senior authorCorrespondingA novel very low frequency (VLF) communication system using one pair of magnetoelectric (ME) antennas has been proposed. The ME antennas are strain-mediated acoustic resonators operating at their electromechanical resonance in the VLF band. The measured near-field radiation pattern reveals ME antennas are equivalent to dipole antennas. The magnetic field radiated by the ME transmitter has been predicted along with distance ranging from 1 mm to 100 km. The measured magnetic field distribution coi…
Nature Communications · 2021 · 186 citations
Senior authorCorrespondingthat can efficiently perform wireless energy harvesting and sense ultra-small magnetic fields. The proposed ME antenna has a wireless PTE 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than any other reported miniaturized micro-coil, allowing the wireless IMDs to be compliant with the SAR limit. Furthermore, the antenna's magnetic field detectivity of 300-500 pT allows the IMDs to record neural magnetic fields.
Magnetoelectric materials and devices
APL Materials · 2021 · 172 citations
Senior authorCorrespondingOver the past few decades, magnetoelectric (ME) materials and devices have been investigated extensively, which is one of the most interesting research topics since the revival of multiferroic laminates with large ME coupling coefficients. The existence of two or more ferroic properties in the ME systems plays key roles in the next generation of novel multifunctional devices. Strong ME coupling has been demonstrated in various ME systems, including single-phase bulk or thin-film materials and bu…
Tutorial: Piezoelectric and magnetoelectric N/MEMS—Materials, devices, and applications
Journal of Applied Physics · 2022 · 47 citations
Senior authorCorrespondingNano- and micro-electromechanical systems (N/MEMSs) are traditionally based on electrostatic or piezoelectric coupling, which couples electrical and mechanical energy through acoustic resonator structures. Most recently, N/MEMS devices based on magnetoelectrics are gaining much attention. Unlike electrostatic or piezoelectric N/MEMS that rely on an AC electric field or voltage excitation, magnetoelecric N/MEMS rely on the electromechanical resonance of a magnetostrictive/piezoelectric bilayer he…
Advanced Materials Technologies · 2021 · 21 citations
Senior authorCorrespondingMiniaturized piezoelectric/magnetostrictive contour-mode resonators have been shown to be effective magnetometers by exploiting the ΔE effect. With dimensions of ~100-200 μm across and <1 μm thick, they offer high spatial resolution, portability, low power consumption, and low cost. However, a thorough understanding of the magnetic material behavior in these devices has been lacking, hindering performance optimization. This manuscript reports on the strong, nonlinear correlation observed between…
Recent grants
NSF · $406k · 2008–2013
NIH · $1.8M · 2018–2022
NCS-FO: Nanomagnetic Stimulation Capability for Neural Investigation and Control
NSF · $364k · 2015–2019
Frequent coauthors
- 310 shared
Atsufumi Hirohata
Conference Board
- 244 shared
Mingzhong Wu
Conference Board
- 242 shared
L. H. Lewis
Northeastern University
- 242 shared
Ron Goldfarb
Conference Board
- 242 shared
Anjan Soumyanarayanan
Institute of Materials Research and Engineering
- 242 shared
Barry Zink
Conference Board
- 242 shared
Sachiko Yamaguchi‐Sekino
Antea Group (France)
- 242 shared
Lucian Prejbeanu
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Education
- 2001
PhD in Materials Science & Engineering and MS in Electrical Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering; Electrical Engineering
Stanford University School of Engineering
- 1996
MS in Materials Science & Engineering, Institute of Metal Research
Chinese Academy of Sciences
- 1993
BS, Materials Science & Engineering
Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Awards & honors
- W.M. Keck Foundation Award
- Humboldt Research Award
- Søren Buus Outstanding Research Award
- Outstanding Translational Research Award
- NSF CAREER Award
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