Huajian Gao

Gao's work spans several broad research fields within engineering sciences, including solid mechanics, nanomechanics and biomechanics. He is widely known for his contributions to the understanding of the basic principles that govern mechanical properties and behaviors of materials in both engineering and biology. He combines analytical and computational methods in continuum mechanics and molecular dynamics to reveal how the deformation characteristics of materials depend on their internal microstructures and associated length- and time-scales. He has played a leading role in research on how metallic and semiconductor materials behave in thin films and nanocrystalline forms, how biological materials and organisms such as bone, gecko, shells, plants and cells achieve their mechanical functions through structural hierarchy and internal organization, and how nanoscale materials (nanoparticles, nanofibers, nanotubes, nanosheets) interact with biological cells and cell membranes.

Gao served on the faculty of Stanford University between 1988 and 2002, where he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1994 and to Full Professor in 2000. He then served as Director at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research from 2001-2006, as Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Engineering at Brown from 2006-2019, and as one of the Distinguished University Professors at Nanyang Technological University and Scientific Director of the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore from 2006-2024. At present, he is one of the University Professors at Tsinghua University. His list of honors includes elections as Fellow of the Royal Society and Member of U.S. National Academy of Sciences, U.S. National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and Foreign Member of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Academia Europaea, as well as numerous academic awards including the Rodney Hill Prize, Timoshenko Medal and ASME Medal, the three highest lifetime achievement awards in his field. Gao is also editor of Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, the leading journal in his field.