I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University.

I work in the broad area of Mechanics, in particular the new frontiers of engineering mechanics at multiple length and time scales. We use multiscale numerical, experimental, and theoretical approaches, to investigate various research frontiers in materials addressing challenges in energy and environment, mechanobiology, nanomechanics, nanoindentation, mechanical self-assembly and morphogenesis. Examples of our recent research include the liquid behaviors in confined nanoenvironments and the related energy absorption/conversion/actuation, molecular biomechanics of membrane proteins and multiscale mechanics of macromolecules, thermomechanical and buckling behaviors of nanotubes, nanowires, and nanofilms, mechanical self-assembly with applications in micro/nanofabrications and implications for mophogenesis of natural and biological systems, measuring the mechanical properties of small material structures by using nanoindentation, controlled fracture for carbon dioxide sequestration, among others. For more details, please go to my research link, or visit the Columbia Nanomechanics Research Center (CNRC). Graduate student positions are available in computational or experimental Solid Mechanics.

No matter how big the universe is or how small the atoms/proteins are, the applications of mechanics are everywhere. As the oldest branch of physics, mechanics has impacted all major technologies, include aerospace, mechanical, materials, electrical, biomedical, chemical, civil and environmental engineering, physics, chemistry, and biology. In the coming decades, mechanics will continue to thrive by means of advancing new technologies. I hope that my research, joining those by other researchers in the field, can make the dazzling success of mechanics enjoyable to more people.