The 2022 JN Reddy Medal Inaugural Recipient

Yonggang Huang

Jan and Marcia Achenbach Professor, Departments of Mechanical Engng, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University

Citation:

For pioneering research on microscale plasticity and mechanics of stretchable electronics

Professor Yonggang Huang has made seminal contribution to the mechanics theory and applications and is recognized as a leader in the research areas of mechanics of materials and mechanics of stretchable electronics. In the early years of Professor Huang’s career, he focused on the advancement of mechanics theory and research in key areas across multiple scales, aiming to integrate the disciplinary fields of mechanics and materials science by developing a clear understanding of the hierarchy of size scales that govern the material behavior. His work on the mechanism-based strain gradient plasticity theory represents a major advance in scaledependent plasticity of metals.

After 2005 Professor Huang has moved to a new research area – mechanics of stretchable and curvilinear electronics. Using mechanics principles Professor Huang and his collaborators have developed electronics with performance equal to established technologies that use flat and rigid semiconductor wafers, but in lightweight, curvilinear, foldable and stretchable formats would enable many new application possibilities. This represents the future electronics technology that overcomes this fundamental mismatch in mechanics and form between biology (soft, elastic and curved) and silicon wafer (hard, rigid and flat). Professors Huang and his collaborators have used mechanics principles to seamlessly integrate stretchable electronics with the human body to provide advanced diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities. His work has received a lot of public attention. It has also been displayed at the Tech Museum of Innovation (San Jose, California) and the Museum of Science & Industry (Chicago, Illinois). NBC Learn, the education arm of NBC, worked with Professor Huang to develop a 45-minute education program on epidermal electronics.

Since 2012 Professor Huang has pioneered a new development: transient electronics — the devices that can disappear in a controlled and programmable way. Professor Huang’s research interest is in electronic systems that disappear at programmed time and at controlled rates with harmless end products when exposed to bio-fluidic solutions or even water. This technology allows, for example, for temporary medical implants to as diagnostic and/or therapeutic platforms. By disappearing after a desired period of operation in the human body, such resorbable implants can eliminate long-term adverse effects or the need for additional surgeries for retrieval. Most devices that incorporate resorbable electronics must function stably for a timeframe that is relevant to the application, followed by complete physical disappearance.

Huang is a most cited researcher in engineering (2009), materials science (since 2014) and physics (2018). His total citations are ~90,000, with H-index 147. He is a member of NAE, NAS, and a fellow of AAA&S. He has also received awards for teaching and undergraduate advising from 3 universities he has taught at. He is a past president of SES, past Chair of ASME Applied Mechanics Division, the editor of JAM, and the incoming editor of AMR.

Link to Web Page: http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/researchfaculty/
directory/profiles/huang-yonggang.html