Hu wins NSF CAREER Award

 

MechSE Assistant Professor Yuhang Hu has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation for her research titled “Mechanics and Physics at the Boundary Between Solid and Fluid: Probing the Thermodynamic and Kinetic Properties of Gels.” The CAREER Award (also known as the Faculty Early Career Development Program) is a prestigious and competitive NSF award given to junior faculty at the beginning of their careers. 

 

Her project will develop a new experimental technique for characterizing the nonlinear thermodynamic and kinetic properties of gels based on an indentation method. This will allow gels to be categorized under different environmental conditions and provide an understanding of the structure-property relations of these materials. 

 

Based on a complete set of data from the systematic measurements, an in-depth understanding of the structure-property relations of gels can be achieved. Consequently, a physics-based constitutive model will be built.

 

Hu’s research at Illinois focuses on new materials phenomena between mechanics and materials chemistry. She joined the department in January 2015. She earned her PhD in in engineering sciences in 2011 and an MS in applied physics in 2009, both from Harvard University. She also earned an M.Eng in civil and environmental engineering from Nanyang Technological University and a BEng in engineering mechanics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.