CV

Education

• PhD in Engineering (Sept. 2013 – July 2018)
  • Major: Mechanics
  • Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University
  • Supervisor: Prof. Changqing Chen
• Visiting PhD Student (Jan. – July 2015) and Endeavour Research Fellow (June – Dec. 2017)
  • School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney
  • Supervisor: Prof. Yixiang Gan
• Bachelor of Engineering (Sept. 2009 – July 2013)
  • Major: Engineering Mechanics
  • Department of Engineering Mechanics, Shandong University

Work experience

• June 2022 - now: Assistant Professor
  • University of Birmingham
• Feb. 2022 - Aug. 2023: Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Nanyang Technological University
  • Host Mentor: Prof. K. Jimmy Hsia
• Dec. 2018 - Feb. 2022: Research Fellow
  • University of Oxford
  • Host Supervisor: Prof. Dominic Vella

Grants and Independent Fellowships

• Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship, Nanyang Technological University (2021), S$400K

• Newton International Fellowship, The Royal Society (2018), £106K

• Endeavour Research Fellowship, Australian Department of Education (2017), A$25K

Selected Publications

1. Guo, K., Liu, M.*, Vella, D., Suresh, S.*, Hsia, K.J.* (2024). Dehydration-induced corrugated folding in Rhapis excelsa plant leaves. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 121 (17), e2320259121. (Featured in the This week in PNAS.)
2. Yang, X., Liu, M.*, Zhang, B., Wang, Z., Chen, T., Zhou, Y., Chen, Y., Hsia, K.J., Wang, Y.* (2024). Hierarchical tessellation enables general 3D shape-morphing structures. Matter, 7, 603-619.
3. Yang, X.#, Zhou, Y.#, Zhao, H., Huang, W., Wang, Y.*, Hsia, K.J.*, Liu, M.* (2023). Morphing matter: From mechanical principles to robotic applications. Soft Science, 3, 38. (Featured as the Front Cover.)
4. Kansaraa, H., Liu, M.*, He, Y., Tan, W.* (2023). Inverse design and additive manufacturing of shape-morphing structures based on functionally graded composites. J Mech. Phys. Solids, 105382.
5. Liu, M., Domino, L., Dupont de Dinechin, I., Taffetani, M., Vella, D.* (2023). Snap-induced morphing: From a single bistable shell to the origin of shape bifurcation in interacting shells. J Mech. Phys. Solids, 70, 105116.
6. Huang, W., Liu, M.*, Hsia, J.K.* (2023). A discrete model for the geometrically nonlinear mechanics of hard-magnetic slender structures. Extre. Mech. Lett., 59, 101977.
7. Huang, W., Liu, M.*, Hsia, J.K.* (2023). Modeling of magnetic cilia carpet robots using discrete differential geometry formulation. Extre. Mech. Lett., 59, 101967.
8. Meng, Z., Liu, M., Yan, H., Genin, G.M., Chen, C.* (2022). Deployable mechanical metamaterials with multistep programmable transformation. Sci. Adv., 8(23), eabn5460.
9. Liu, M., Gomez, M., Vella, D.* (2021). Delayed bifurcation in elastic snap-through instabilities. J Mech. Phys. Solids, 151, 104386.
10. Liu, M., Domino, L., Vella, D.* (2020). Tapered elasticæ as a route for axisymmetric morphing structures. Soft Matter, 16, 7739–7750.

Service and leadership

• Early Career Advisory Board (EML-ECAB), Special Editor for Social Media Engagement: Extreme Mechanics Letters

• Youth Editorial Board: Soft Science

• Referee for peer-reviewed journals: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.; Phys. Rew. Lett.; J Mech. Phys. Solids; Extre. Mech. Lett.; Int. J Solids Struct.; Proc. R. Soc. A; Phys. Rev. B; Phys. Rev. E; Phys. Rev. Appl.; EcoMat; Adv. Sci., Adv. Intell. Syst.; Int. J. Extreme Manuf.; Mech. Mater.; Phys. Fluids; Virtual Phys. Prototyp.; Int. J Mech. Mater. Design; ACS Appl. Nano Mater.; Plos One; Polym. Test.; Acta Mech. Sin.; Chinese J. Aeronaut.; Eur. Phys. J. Plus; Mech. Based Des. Struc.

• Referee for the funding agency: UKRI-Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong