Yonggang Huang

Education

He moved to the United States to study engineering science in 1986, and earned his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in engineering science from Harvard University in 1987 and 1990, respectively.

Career

Yonggang Huang received his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanics from Peking University in 1984. He stayed at Harvard as a post-doctoral fellow for one year, and joined the University of Arizona as an assistant professor in 1991. He moved to Michigan Technological University as an associate professor in 1995, and to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1998.

He was promoted to full professor in 2001, Grayce Wicall Gauthier Professor in 2003, and Shao Lee Soo Professor in 2004, at UIUC. He joined Northwestern University as the Joseph Cummings Professor in 2007, and is now the Walter P. Murphy Professor.

Huang has been working on mechanics of materials and structures across multiple scales, such as the mechanism-based strain gradient plasticity theory, and atomistic-based continuum theory for carbon nanotubes. In recent years he has focused on mechanics and thermal analysis of stretchable and dissolvable electronics with applications to energy harvesting and medicine, and mechanically guided, deterministic 3D assembly.

His work on the electronic tattoos() has been reported by National Broadcasting Company Learn (the education arm of National Broadcasting Company). Since 2011, he has been the editor-in-chief of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Letters.

Huang is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Mechanics (Transactions of American Society of Mechanical Engineers).

Achievements

• Yonggang Huang has been honored with many recognitions in mechanics and mechanical engineering including the Gustus L. Larson Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) in 2003, George W. Melvile Medal from American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2004, Young Investigator Medal from the Society of Engineering Sciences in 2006, International Journal of Plasticity Medal in 2007, the Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 2008, Highly Cited Researcher in Engineering from Thomson Reuters and Honorary Professor from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2009, Charles Russian Richards Award from American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2010, Daniel C. Drucker Medal from American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2013, Highly Cited Researcher in Materials Science from Thomson Reuters and Honorary Professor from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2014, and Highly Cited Researcher in Materials Science from Thomson Reuters and Honorary Professor from Southwest Jiaotong University in 2015. He was elected a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2011.

Membership

He was the president of the Society of Engineering Sciences (2014), and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Applied Mechanics Division, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2015-2020). He was elected a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2011.