Huajian Gao

2011-06-28

Huajian Gao Professor
School of Engineering
Brown University

Scientific Profile

Professor Huajian Gao is the Walter H. Annnenberg University Professor at Brown University. He received his B.S. degree from Xian Jiaotong University of China in 1982, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering Science from Harvard University in 1984 and 1988, respectively. He 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 was appointed as Director and Professor at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart, Germany between 2001 and 2006. He joined Brown University in 2006. Professor Gao has a background in applied mechanics and engineering science. He has more than 20 years of research experience with 200+ publications.

Research Interests
Concepts and methods in continuum, atomistic and statistical mechanics are being developed to model nanoscale and hierarchical materials systems in engineering and biology. Systems and phenomena of interest include hierarchical structures of bone and gecko, cell adhesion, endocytosis, thin films, dynamic fracture, carbon nanotubes, and biomolecules. Fundamental concepts under study include diffusion, dislocations, fracture, grain boundary, stiffness, toughness, contact, adhesion, viscoelasticity, convergent evolution, flaw tolerance, size effects, shape optimization, self-assembly, and bottom-up hierarchical materials design. Applications of research include microelectronic and optoelectronic devices, nanotechnology, nano- and hierarchical materials engineering, biomimetics, bio-sensing, and gene/drug delivery systems. Professor Gao is a receipient of numerous academic awards including the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Best Achievement Award for Young Investigators in Applied Mechanics, the Society of Engineering Science Young Investigator Award, the Chang Jiang Guest Chair Professorship of Tsinghua University, the Outstanding Oversea Young Investigator Award by the Ministry of Education of China. the Humboldt Research Fellowship, the NSF Young Investigator Award, the Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, the IBM Faculty Development Award, and the Alcoa Science Award. He is Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
 

 Selected Publications

2000 Huang YG*, Gao HJ, Nix WD, Hutchinson JW, Mechanism-based strain gradient plasticity - II. Analysis , JOURNAL OF THE MECHANICS AND PHYSICS OF SOLIDS       
2003 Gao HJ*, Ji BH, Jager IL, Arzt E, Fratzl P, Materials become insensitive to flaws at nanoscale: Lessons from nature, PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA  
2003 Buehler MJ, Abraham FF, Gao HJ*, Hyperelasticity governs dynamic fracture at a critical length scale, NATURE          
2003 Gao HJ*, Kong Y, Cui DX, Ozkan CS, Spontaneous insertion of DNA oligonucleotides into carbon nanotubes, Nano Letters           
2004 Gao HJ*, Yao HM, Shape insensitive optimal adhesion of nanoscale fibrillar structures, PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA      
2004 Gao HJ*, Kong Y, Simulation of DNA-nanotube interactions, ANNUAL REVIEW OF MATERIALS RESEARCH  
2005 Gao HJ*, Wang X, Yao HM, Gorb S, Arzt E, Mechanics of hierarchical adhesion structures of geckos  MECHANICS OF MATERIALS          
2005 Gao HJ*, Shi WD, Freund LB, Mechanics of receptor-mediated endocytosis, PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA        
2006 Yao HM and Gao HJ*, Mechanics of Robust and Releasable Adhesion in Biology: Bottom-up Designed Hierarchical Structures of Gecko, JOURNAL OF THE MECHANICS AND PHYSICS OF SOLIDS    
2006 Buehler MJ*, Gao HJ, Dynamical fracture instabilities due to local hyperelasticity at crack tips, NATURE           
2008 Han Z, Wu WF, Li Y*, Wei YJ and Gao HJ*, An Instability Index of Shear Band for Plasticity in Metallic Glasses, ACTA MATERIALIA          
2009 Li X, Wei Y, Yang W and Gao HJ* , Competing Grain-Boundary- and Dislocation-Mediated Mechanisms in Plastic Strain Recovery in Nanocrystalline Aluminum, PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF USA 
2010 Li X, Wei Y, Lu L, Lu K and Gao HJ*, Dislocation Nucleation Governed Softening and Maximum Strength in Nanotwinned Metals, NATURE

Contact Details

Phone: +1 401 863 2626
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