Recently, Associate Professor Wei Xiaofeng from Professor Wang Dongyun's research team at the School of Engineering traveled to Belgium to attend the 2025 International Conference on Droplets (Droplets 2025), where he delivered an invited keynote speech and chaired a parallel session.
The International Conference on Droplets (Droplets) is a top-tier international conference in the field of interfacial fluid mechanics, held biennially to bring together scholars worldwide for academic exchange. The 2025 edition, hosted in Liège, Belgium, attracted over 290 participants, including contemporary fluid mechanics giants such as Detlef Lohse, David Quéré, Emmanuel Villermaux, and Hans-Jürgen Butt. An invited keynote speech at such an international conference is one of the highest recognitions and honors for scholars, with speakers typically being top international academics like Jose Manuel Gordillo, Associate Editor of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics (JFM), a top journal in fluid mechanics.
The content of this report was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, as well as the Zhejiang International Science and Technology Cooperation Base for Fluid and Heat Transfer Technology. This participation has significantly enhanced the international and domestic influence of Zhejiang Normal University in the field of fluid mechanics.
(a) Keynote speech at the conference; (b) Chairing of a parallel session; (c) Professor Benoit Scheid, Conference Chair.
The title of Associate Professor Wei Xiaofeng's report was "Satellite Formation in Ligament Breakup: Viscosity and Stretching Effects", covering the mechanisms of liquid bridge breakup and satellite droplet formation. The report was highly praised by scholars such as Professor Jose Manuel Gordillo from the University of Seville (Spain) and Professor Javier Rodríguez-Rodríguez from Carlos III University of Madrid (Spain), with in-depth exchanges conducted after the presentation.
Associate Professor Wei Xiaofeng obtained his PhD from Zhejiang University in 2021 under the supervision of Professor Zou Jun. During his doctoral studies, he studied at the TIPs Laboratory of the Free University of Brussels (Belgium) and received systematic scientific research training under the guidance of Professor Benoit Scheid. His research focuses on phenomena such as droplets, liquid bridges, and coatings in interfacial fluid mechanics, aiming to promote basic research to industrial applications. His achievements have been published in top and authoritative fluid mechanics journals including JFM (Journal of Fluid Mechanics), PRF (Physical Review Fluids), and POF (Physics of Fluids), and he also serves as a reviewer for these journals. Relevant research has been reported by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, and he won the Best Presentation Award at the 2023 International Conference on Droplets (Droplets 2023). Since joining Zhejiang Normal University, Wei Xiaofeng has become a member of Professor Wang Dongyun's team, presided over one Youth Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and one General Project of the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, and maintained close academic cooperation with renowned domestic and foreign institutions such as the Free University of Brussels, Carlos III University of Madrid, University of Science and Technology of China, and Zhejiang University.