Prof. 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 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 served as Director at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research between 2001 and 2006, and then as Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Engineering at Brown University from 2006-2019. At present, he is the Walter H. Annenberg Emeritus Professor of Engineering at Brown University and one of the Distinguished University Professors at Nanyang Technological University, as well as the Scientific Director of the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore.

 

Prof. 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 the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, the flagship journal of his field. He has been elected to memberships in the Royal Society, 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. He has also received numerous awards and honors, including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rodney Hill Prize in Solid Mechanics from the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, the William Prager Medal from Society of Engineering Science, the Nadai Medal, the Timoshenko Medal and the ASME Medal from American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Theodor von Karman Medal from American Society of Civil Engineers.

 

Academy Memberships

Fellow of the Royal Society

National Academy of Science of USA

National Academy of Engineering of USA

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Academia Europaea (Academy of Europe)

Professional Society Memberships

Honorary Fellow, International Congress on Fracture (ICF)

Fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME)

Fellow, Institute of Physics, Great Britain (IoP)

Life Member, American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Life Member, Society of Engineering Science (SES)

Member, Materials Research Society (MRS)

Member, Engineering Mechanics Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

Major Society Recognitions

ASME Medal (highest award of ASME and is to recognize “eminently distinguished engineering achievement”), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 2023

Timoshenko Medal (highest medal of ASME in the field of applied mechanics), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 2021

Senior Distinguished Research Achievement Award, Brown University (only one award in physical sciences per year for the whole university), 2018

Theodore von Karman Medal (highest medal of ASCE in engineering mechanics), Engineering Mechanics Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2017

Nadai Medal (highest medal of ASME in engineering materials), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 2015

William Prager Medal (highest medal of SES), Society of Engineering Science (SES), 2015

Rodney Hill Prize in Solid Mechanics (highest international award in mechanics; only one awardee every four years), International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 2012

Alexander von Humboldt Research Award (highest German award for international scientists), Germany, 2012

Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award (highest joint award of Pi Tau Sigma and ASME), Pi Tau Sigma (National Mechanical Engineering Honor Society) and ASME, 2011

Guggenheim Fellowship (for exceptional scholarship or creativity; only 1-2 awards in engineering per year), John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 1995

Research Interests

Solid Mechanics, nanomechanics, biomechanics

Fracture mechanics

Thin film mechanics

Mechanics of nanostructured and low dimensional materials

Mechanics of membrane targeting nanomedicine

Hydrogen embrittlement

Publications & Impact

Publication: >500 papers in refereed journals, including Nature and Nature family journals, Science, Advanced Materials, PNAS, Physical Review Letters, Nano Letters, and Proceedings of the Royal Society, as well as important journals in my field (e.g., JMPS, IJSS, JAM).

H-index: 110 (Google Scholar), 98 ISI Web of Science (Researcher ID F-9360-2010)

Total number of citations: >54K (Google Scholar), >43K (ISI Web of Science)

ISI Highly Cited Researcher, Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), 2015, 2018
 

Awards & Honors

2023 ASME Medal, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), announced on May 22, 2023 (news)

2022 TMS William D. Nix Award, The Mineral, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), March 2, 2022 (news)

2021 Timoshenko Medal, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), announced on May 18, 2021 (news)

Plenary Lecture, Indian Structural Integrity Society, Structural Integrity Conference and Exhibition, December 13, 2020

Plenary Lecture, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition, Mechanics of Solids, Structures and Fluids Track, November 18, 2020

Plenary Lecture, Nanomedicine, Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology (Webinar), September 17, 2020

Guo Yonghuai Lecture on Advances in Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Science, Institute of Mechanics, April 16, 2020

Plenary Lecture (Opening), The Adhesion Society, 43rd Annual Meeting, February 24, 2020

Outstanding Reviewer Award, Scripta Materialia, 2019

Closing Plenary Lecture, 56th Annual Technical Meeting, Society of Engineering Science, 2019

Distinguished University Professor (only 6 DUPs in the entire university), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 2019

James K. Knowles Lecture, California Institute of Technology, 2019

Elected Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2019

Elected Member of Academia Europae, 2018

The Dan and Carole Burack President’s Distinguished Lecture Series, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Vermont, 2018

Elected Member of National Academy of Sciences, 2018

The Raymond D. Mindlin Lecture, Department of Civil Engineering & Engineering Mechanics, Columbia University & ASCE Metropolitan Section, Engineering Mechanics Institute, American Society of Civil Engineering, 2018

Senior Distinguished Research Achievement Award, Brown University (only one award in physical sciences per year for the whole university), 2018

Honorary Professorship, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2018

Martin Weiner Lecture Series, Physics Department Colloquium, Brandeis University, 2017

Elected as Honorary Fellow, International Congress on Fracture (ICF), 2017

Theodore von Karman Medal (highest medal of ASCE in engineering mechanics), Engineering Mechanics Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2017

Elected Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, 2017

Faculty Fellow, Hagler Institute of Advanced Study (TIAS) at Texas A&M University, 2017

Southwest Mechanics Lecture Series (invited lecture tour of universities in the Southwestern region of USA), 2017

Fran and Eric Gebhardt Distinguished Lecture, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016

Wang Ren Lecture on Mechanics, Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science, Peking University, 2016

Rockwell Distinguished Lecture, University of Houston, 2016

Fowler Distinguished Lecture, Texas A&M University, 2016

CU-Boulder Aerospace Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series, Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, 2016

C.C. Mei Distinguished Speaker Seminar (DSS) Series, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016

Distinguished Visiting Chair Professor Scheme (DCPS), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2016-2017

Elected Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2015

Distinguished Lecture Series, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, 2015

Nadai Medal (for distinguished contributions and outstanding achievements which broaden the field of materials engineering), American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2015

William Prager Medal (for outstanding research contributions in theoretical solid mechanics), Society of Engineering Science, 2015

James F. Bell Memorial Lecture in Continuum Mechanics, Johns Hopkins University, 2015

Martin & Lucinda Glicksman Seminar Series, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department, Florida Institute of Technology, 2015

ISI Highly Cited Researcher, Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), 2015

Winston Chen Distinguished Lecture, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 2014

Yunchuan Aisinjioro-Soo Distinguished Lecture, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014

Inaugural Distinguished Lecturer, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, 2014

The 33rd Master Forum Lecturer, Shanghai Jiaotong University, 2014

Honorary Professorship, Shanghai Jiaotong University, 2013

Founding co-Director, Center for Advanced Mechanics and Materials, Tsinghua University, 2013

Van C. Mow Distinguished Lecture in Applied Mechanics, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2013.

Lee Hsun Lecture Award, Institute of Metals Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2012.

Founding co-Director, Center for Advanced Mechanics and Materials, Tsinghua University, 2012.

Inaugural Simpson Faculty Fellow, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2012.

Distinguished Visiting Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, 2012.

Timoshenko Distinguished Visitor, Mechanics and Computation Group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, 2012.

Engineering Distinguished Lecture, The University of Hong Kong, 2012.

Institute of Advanced Study Distinguished Lecture, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2012.

Elected Member of National Academy of Engineering of USA, 2012.

Rodney Hill Prize in Solid Mechanics, International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 2012.

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Prize (Humboldt-Forschungspreis), Federal Republic of Germany, 2012.

Honorary Professorship, Shanghai University, 2011.

ASME Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award, American Society of Mechanical Engineering, 2011.

Stanford S. and Beverley P. Penner Distinguished Lecture in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, 2011.

Y.C. Fung Lecture, California Institute of Technology, 2011.

Highly Commended Article, The James Clerk Maxwell Young Writers Prize, Journal of Philosophical Magazine, 2010 (with T.K. Bhandakkar, E. Chason).

Honorary Professorship, Xian Jiaotong University, 2009.

William Mong Distinguished Lectures, The University of Hong Kong, 2009.

ASME Robert Henry Thurston Lecture Award, American Society of Mechanical Engineering, 2009.

Distinguished scholars and artists Advisor, John S. Guggenheim Foundation, 2008-2011.

Visiting Investigator Programme (VIP) Award, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, 2007-2012.

The Jerzy Nowinski Lecture, University of Delaware, 2007.

Distinguished Scholar Lecture, Arizona State University, 2007.

Co-editor-in-Chief of Journal of Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 2006.

Midwestern Mechanics Lecturer, 2005-2006.

Wissenschaftspreis des Stifterverbands (Research innovation award; team leader is Prof. Eduard Arzt), Max Planck Society, 2005.

Elected Board of Directors, Society of Engineering Science, 2005.

Young Investigator Award, Society of Engineering Science, 2005.

Elected Fellow, The Institute of Physics, 2004.

George Wallace Melville Medal, American Society of Mechanical Engineering, 2004.

Elected Fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineering, 2003.

Oversea Director, Shenyang Center for Interfacial Materials, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2003.

Scientific Member (Director), Max Planck Society, 2001-2006.

Outstanding Young Investigator Award, National Science Foundation of China, 2000.

Chang Jiang Chair Professorship Award, Chinese Ministry of Education, 2000.

Special Achievement Award for Young Investigators in Applied Mechanics, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1999.

Humboldt Fellowship Award, 1997.

Alcoa Science Award, 1996.

Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship Award, 1995.

NSF Young Investigator Award, 1993-1998.

IBM Faculty Development Award, 1992-1993.

NSF Research Initiation Award, 1990-1992.

IBM Research Initiation Award, 1990.

Schlumberger Fellowship Award, 1988.

Harvard University Graduate Fellowship Award, 1984.

Xian Jiaotong University, “SAN HAO XUE SHENG” medal, 1979-1982.

Xian Jiaotong University Fellowship Award, 1978-1982.