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Graduate Student Ling Liu Wins the Founder Prize of American Academy of Mechanics

11/05/2008

Ling Liu, a 3rd year Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, is the winner of 2008 Founder Prize of the American Academy of Mechanics. The Founder Prize was established in 2000, which is awarded annually to no more than two outstanding Ph.D. students in mechanics. Ling Liu is this year’s sole winner. The selection committee was very impressed by his academic and publication records, as well as the essay he wrote for the competition “Progress through Mechanics: Nanoporous Energy Absorption/Harvesting/Actuation Systems”, which is the theme of his doctoral thesis under the guidance of Associate Professor Xi Chen.

Ling Liu obtained his B.S. and M.S. from Dalian Institute of Technology, in 2003 and 2006, respectively. He obtained the Presidential Fellowship from Columbia University and has been a Ph.D. student in Prof. Chen’s group since 2006. Since entering the doctoral program at CEEM, he has published nine journal papers and is working on several others. His main research area is novel nano-materials for energy absorption, harvesting and actuation. He has also studied and published in nanomechanics, nanoindentation, self-assembly and thin film mechanics at CEEM.

Liu was presented with the Founder Prize by MIT Professor Rohan Abeyaratne, President of the American Academy of Mechanics, at the Applied Mechanics Banquet during the ASME Congress in Boston on Nov. 4. Professor Aveyaratne congratulated both Liu and Prof. Chen on Liu’s significant accomplishment.