Zhenpeng Xu

Xu Zhenpeng (徐振澎) is a Chinese chipmaking and additive manufacturing engineer who left the United States in early 2026 to join Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. He earned his Ph.D. from UCLA in 2023 under advisor Xiaoyu (Rayne) Zheng, specializing in large-area, micron-precision 3D printing technologies.

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Before returning to China, Xu led a packaging research group at Atomic Semi, a California-based semiconductor startup backed by OpenAI's venture fund, where he developed 3D printing techniques to make chip production faster and cheaper. He cited increasingly restrictive US compliance policies and limited international mobility as key reasons for his departure.

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Xu has authored 20+ publications in prestigious journals including Science, Nature Electronics, and Nature Communications. His research focuses on advancing next-generation additive manufacturing processes, architected metamaterials, multi-material 3D printing, and their applications in semiconductor packaging, intelligent materials, and communications technologies.