Xiaocheng Zeng is a computational materials scientist and Chancellor’s University Professor (former) at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, now on the MSE faculty at City University of Hong Kong. Educated via the CUSPEA program, he earned a BS in Physics from Peking University and a PhD in Condensed Matter Physics from The Ohio State University, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago and UCLA. His research spans water at surfaces and interfaces, confined fluids, wetting/dewetting on nanostructures, thermodynamics and phase transitions of water/ice/hydrates, nanocluster evolution, heterogeneous catalysis, and properties of low‑dimensional materials and perovskites. He served as Associate Editor of RSC’s Nanoscale (2012–2022) and, as of December 2025, has published 750 papers with 65,000+ citations (Google Scholar h‑index 128; Web of Science h‑index 113), with multiple works highlighted by ACS C&EN, RSC Chemistry World, and as journal covers.