MRL Director's Distinguished Seminar - Prof. Hanqing Jiang

ABSTRACT 

Soft matter combines mechanical compliance with functional versatility, providing rich ground for scientific discovery and engineering innovation. Guided by the theme “one seed, many fruits,” this talk covers my research journey across several interconnected fields. My early work focused on enabling flexibility and stretchability in electronic devices, then expanded into hydrogels, encompassing theoretical modeling, numerical simulation, and practical applications. In energy storage, we introduced soft materials to mitigate mechanical failure in batteries during operation. In robotics, we developed robotic arms with tunable stiffness based on fabrics and origami structures, as well as soft grippers that conform to complex three-dimensional surfaces. More recently, our team has developed insect-scale robots driven by electromagnetic actuation and Helmholtz resonators with compliant necks that harness viscoelasticity to achieve broadband sound absorption at low frequencies. Together, these studies demonstrate how a common foundation in soft matter can give rise to diverse innovations across mechanics, materials, electronics, energy, robotics, and acoustics, an academic journey in which one seed yields many fruits.

BIOGRAPHY

Hanqing Jiang is a Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Westlake University, China. Before joining Westlake in June 2021, he was a faculty member in Mechanical Engineering at Arizona State University from 2006 to 2021. He earned his Ph.D. in Solid Mechanics from Tsinghua University in 2001. His research focuses on origami- and kirigami-based mechanical metamaterials for robotics and human-machine interactions, lithium-metal batteries, and unconventional electronics. He has authored five book chapters and over 180 peer-reviewed journal papers. He was elected an ASME Fellow in 2016, a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2024, and a member of the European Academy of Sciences in 2024. He served as Chair of the Executive Committee of the ASME Materials Division in 2024 and was President of the Society of Engineering Science in 2022. His selected honors include an NSF CAREER Award (2009), the ASME Worcester Reed Warner Medal (2021), the Yonggang Huang Engineering Science Medal (2025), and the ASME Daniel C. Drucker Medal (2025).