Lihua Jin, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has received a 2025 Huajian Gao Young Investigator Medal from the Society of Engineering Science. The medal honors early-career researchers who have already made an impact on a field within the engineering sciences. Jin, one of two honorees this year, was recognized for “exceptionally advancing the understanding of mechanics of stimuli-responsive soft materials, soft structures and architected materials, leading to novel applications in soft robotics, stretchable electronics, and energy-absorbing materials.” The award was presented at the 2025 SES Annual Technical Meeting, held in Atlanta in October. Founded in 1963, the nonprofit Society of Engineering Science promotes interdisciplinary collaboration on problems at the intersection of science, engineering and math. Its Young Investigator Medal, first awarded in 2000, was renamed in 2024 to honor Tsinghua University professor Huajian Gao, a pioneer in nanomechanics and the third recipient of the medal. At UCLA, Jin directs the Mechanics of Soft Materials Laboratory. Her other honors include the Sia Nemat-Nasser Early Career Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a Hellman Fellowship and a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation.
Caption: Left to right: At the 2025 SES Annual Technical Meeting: Lihua Jin of UCLA; SES
president Sinan Keten, of Northwestern University; Diego Misseroni, also a Gao Young
Investigator Medalist for 2025, of University of Trento, Italy.
Credit: Courtesy SES