His research interests are in the area of chemistry, physics, and engineering of polymers and advanced functional materials including ordered structure, morphology, phase transition thermodynamics, kinetics, and molecular motions. His recent interests in particular are focusing on nanohybrid materials with different molecular chemical structures and physical topologies, architectures, and interactions and their assemblies in the bulk, solution, and thin films. He is also active in developing researches of conducting polymers, photovoltaics, polymer optics, and photonics. Stephen Z. D. Cheng currently holds the R. C. Musson & Trustees Professor and serves as the Dean of the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering at the University of Akron. He is the recipient of Presidential Young Investigator Award (1991), John H. Dillon Medal (APS, 1995), Mettler-Toledo Award (NATAS, 1999), TA-Instrument Award (ICTAC, 2004), PMSE Cooperative Research Award (ACS, 2005), Polymer Physics Prize (APS, 2013), SPSJ International Award (Society of Polymer Science, Japan, 2017) and other awards and recognitions. Cheng has been a Fellow of AAAS and APS and an Honorable Fellow of Chinese Chemical Society. He has been elected as a member of the National Academic of Engineering of US (2008).