About Jesus College/Our community/ People
Dr Li Shen

Roles and subjects

Lecturer in Engineering Science

Contact

sam-li.shen@eng.ox.ac.uk

Academic Background

I spent my full-of-memory Bachelor’s and Master’s years studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan—Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute (UM–SJTU JI), where I developed strong interests in higher education teaching and started researching energy-related subjects, thanks to my previous advisors, Prof. Kwee-Yan Teh and Prof. David Hung.

I joined the current research group at the University of Oxford as a DPhil research student in 2018. Supervised by Prof. Richard Stone FREng and Prof. Ben Williams, my DPhil work aimed to increase our understanding of turbulent flows in thermal propulsion systems and to help automotive companies design next-generation systems with lower emissions. Combined my newly learnt skill sets at Oxford as an experimentalist with my previous experience at UM–SJTU JI as a data analyst, I used optical diagnostics tools to measure these complex flows in a non-intrusive way and developed algorithms with dimensionality reduction techniques to extract coherent structures from them for validating flow models.

Since my undergraduate years, I am devoted to contributing to the teaching activities. I was a teaching assistant at UM–SJTU JI for over six years, helping over 500 students from eight different countries better understand course materials and gain knowledge in corresponding subjects such as Thermodynamics and Automotive Engineering. In addition to teaching the students, I also served as the Chief Teaching Assistant Mentor in the Center for Learning and Teaching there and led a team of twelve mentors. Together we trained over 300 new teaching assistants and wrote a training handbook for UM–SJTU JI.

I am lucky that I could continue expressing my enthusiasm for teaching at Oxford. I served as a B7 paper tutor twice, a P5 Thermodynamics lab demonstrator since 2019, and a teaching assistant for MSc in Energy since 2022 for the Department of Engineering Science, and I was also selected as the B7 Paper Lead Tutor in the Academic Year 2022-2023.

Since October 2023, I am currently a College Lecturer in Engineering at Pembroke College teaching the P4 course module, where I was very pleased to be recognised by my tutees and received the annual Teaching Excellence Award in June 2024.

This year (Academic Year 2024-2025), I have had the privilege of returning to Jesus College as a Lecturer in Engineering, covering the one-year sabbatical leave for the Tutorial Fellows.

I learned a lot from my previous students and enjoyed every minute of teaching. I look forward to continuing to explore the world of Engineering Science with the fellow students.

UndergraduateTeaching 

  • P1 and A1 Math
  • P4 and A4 Thermodynamics
  • P4 and A4 Fluid Mechanics
  • P4 Heat and Mass Transfer
  • P4 Dimensional Analysis

PostgraduateTeaching 

  • Thermodynamics
  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Heat and Mass Transfer

Research Interests

After receiving my DPhil in Engineering Science degree from Jesus College in early 2022, I took the opportunity to continue my research as a postdoctoral researcher within the group, this time in a rapidly developing research area focusing on the sprays of a hydrogen carrier and potentially carbon-free alternative fuel – ammonia. Working with Prof. Felix Leach, we are enhancing our understanding of the multi-phase flow behaviour of this green energy source and helping the industry increase the efficiency of its energy release process, with the targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving a carbon-neutral society sooner.

Links

Subject notes for courses taught at Jesus College:

See also Dr Shen’s personal profile, departmental website, and Department of Engineering Science website.