TechTalk – Mechanomaterials: Connecting Mechanics to Materials Innovations and Challenges

All members of the HKU community and the general public are welcome to join!
Speaker: Professor Huajian Gao, Distinguished University Professor of Nanyang Technological University and Scientific Director of Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR
Date: 14th December 2022 (Wednesday)
Time: 2:30pm
Mode: Mixed
About the Tech Talk
All members of the HKU community and the general public are welcome to join!
Speaker: Professor Huajian Gao, Distinguished University Professor of Nanyang Technological University and Scientific Director of Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR
Moderator: Professor David Srolovitz, Dean of Engineering, The University of Hong Kong
Date: 14th December 2022 (Wednesday)
Time: 2:30pm
Mode: Mixed (both face-to-face and online). Seats for on-site participants are limited. A confirmation email will be sent to participants who have successfully registered.
Language: English

The classical subjects of solid mechanics, structural mechanics and mechanics of materials have played important roles in helping develop structural and functional materials, giving rise to recent advances in nanostructured materials, biomedical materials, mechanical metamaterials, soft actuators, flexible electronics, tunable mechanochromics, regenerative mechanomedicine, etc. While these classical subjects often focus on passive access to mechanical properties of materials in existing forms, a paradigm shift, referred to as mechanomaterials, is emerging toward proactive programming of materials’ properties and functionalities during the manufacturing process by leveraging the force–geometry–property relationships. Here, we provide a couple of examples that illustrate this emerging paradigm, which include overcoming some of the long-standing or recent challenges in the developments of fatigue-resistant metals, mechanics-guided shape morphing electronics, strong and switchable adhesives, epicardial patches for the treatment of heart attack and membrane-active nanomedicine.

Registration
  • The tech talk “Mechanomaterials: Connecting Mechanics to Materials Innovations and Challenges” will be organized in the Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing Two (G/F, Run Run Shaw Building, HKU) on 14th December 2022 (Wednesday), 2:30 pm.
  • Seats are limited. Zoom broadcast is available if the seating quota is full. 
  • Registrants on the waiting list will be notified of the arrangement after the registration deadline (with seating/free-standing/other arrangement)
  • Please read the Campus Access and HKU Vaccine Pass (https://covid19.hku.hk/announcements/all/2022/04/13776/)

Professor Huajian Gao

Huajian Gao received his B.S. degree from Xian Jiaotong University in 1982, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering Science from Harvard in 1984 and 1988, respectively. He served on the faculty of Stanford from 1988-2002, as Director at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research from 2001-2006 and as Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Engineering at Brown from 2006-2019. At present, he is one of 6 Distinguished University Professors at Nanyang Technological University and Scientific Director of the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore.
Professor Gao’s research has been focused on the understanding of basic principles that control mechanical properties and behaviors of materials in both engineering and biological systems. He is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, the flagship journal in his field. His list of honors includes elections to US National Academy of Sciences, US National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, German National Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Academia Europaea, as well as academic awards including the Timoshenko Medal, the highest lifetime achievement award in his field.

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