Yaning Li
Associate Professor,
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Office
- 245 SN
- 617.373.3027
Research Focus
Mechanics of materials, bio-inspired engineering, and additive manufacturing; mechanics of innovative architectured materials; mechanical metamaterials; biological materials
Education
- PhD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2007
- Dual MS, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2006
Honors & Awards
- National Science Foundation CAREER Award 2016
- AFOSR SFFP Faculty Fellowship Award 2013
- IUTAM Young Investigator Travel Award
Professional Affiliations
- American Physical Society (APS)
- American Society of Composite (ASC)
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
- Society of Engineering Science (SES)
- Society of Experimental Mechanics (SEM)
- Society of Material Science (MRS)
- Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME)
Research Overview
Mechanics of materials, bio-inspired engineering, and additive manufacturing; mechanics of innovative architectured materials; mechanical metamaterials; biological materials
Selected Research Projects
- Frictional Mechanical Metamaterial
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- A Bio-Inspired Strategy for In-Plane Energy Dissipation Through Suture Interfaces
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Mechanics of A New Family of Auxetic Chiral Composites
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Mechanics of Bio-Inspired CNT-Modified Hierarchical/ Fractal Interfaces
- – Principal Investigator, Department of Defense/Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- Phillips, Katherine R., Zhang, Cathy T., Yang, Ting, Kay, Theresa, Gao, Chao, Brandt, Soeren, Liu, Lei, Yang, Haizhao, Li, Yaning, Aizenberg, Joanna, Li, Ling (2020). Fabrication of Photonic Microbricks via Crack Engineering of Colloidal Crystals. Advanced Functional Materials, 30(26),1908242. 10.1002/ADFM.201908242
- Phillips, Katherine R., Zhang, Cathy T., Yang, Ting, Kay, Theresa, Gao, Chao, Brandt, Soeren, Liu, Lei, Yang, Haizhao, Li, Yaning, Aizenberg, Joanna, Li, Ling (2020). Photonic Microbricks: Fabrication of Photonic Microbricks via Crack Engineering of Colloidal Crystals (Adv. Funct. Mater. 26/2020). Advanced Functional Materials, 30(26),2070172. 10.1002/ADFM.202070172
- B. Hasseldine, C. Gao, Y. Li, Prediction of the Anisotropic Damage Evolution of Dry Common Millet (Panicum miliaceum) Seed Under Quasi-Static Blunt Indentation, Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 214, 2019, 112-122
- Y. Jiang, Y. Li, 3D Printed Hybrid Auxetic Metamaterial with Chiral Cells and Reentrant Cores, Scientific Reports, 8, 2018, 2397
- C. Gao, B. Hasseldine, L. Li, J. Weaver, Y. Li Amplifying Strength, Toughness, and Auxeticity via Wavy Sutural Tessellation in Plant Seedcoats, Advanced Materials, (Inside Back Cover), 2018, 1800579
- L. Liu, Y. Li, Predicting the Mixed-Mode I/II Spatial Damage Propagation along 3D-Printed Soft Interfacial Layer via a Hyperelastic Softening Model, Journal of Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 116, 2018, 17-32
- Y. Jiang, Y. Li, 3D Printed Chiral Cellular Solids with Amplified Auxetic Effects Due to Elevated Internal Rotation, Advanced Engineering Materials, 19(2), 2017, 1-8
- L. Liu, Y. Jiang, M.C. Boyce, C. Ortiz, J. Baur, J. Song, Y. Li The Effects of Morphological Irregularity on the Mechanical Behavior of Interdigitated Biological Sutures, Journal of Biomechanics, 58, 2017, 71-78
Jan 31, 2025
2024 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2% of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above. The list below includes those who published a paper in 2024 or later.
Sep 17, 2024
Patent for 3D Auxetic Composite Structures
MIE Associate Professor Yaning Li was awarded a patent for “Three-dimensional auxetic composite structures.”
Sep 05, 2024
A Bio-Inspired Approach to Material Design
MIE Postdoctoral Research Associate Richard Nash, PhD’23, and Associate Professor Yaning Li published their research, “On-demand Auxeticity and Co-existing Pre-tension Induced Compression Stage in a Sandwich Design With Kinematically Constrained 3D Suture Tiles,” in Nature Communications.
Jun 25, 2024
Exploring the Potential of Frictional Mechanical Metamaterials
MIE Associate Professor Yaning Li was awarded a $531,056 NSF grant to explore a new category of mechanical metamaterials: “Frictional Mechanical Metamaterial.”
Dec 07, 2023
2023 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2% of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above.
May 22, 2023
Creating 3D-Printed Materials Inspired by Nature To Protect EV Vehicle Batteries
MIE Associate Professor Yaning Li is designing new materials and fabricating them using 3D printing to protect EV batteries by creating a tiled auxetic metamaterial inspired by nature. She received a Spark Fund award from the Center for Research Innovation at Northeastern for this work.
Jan 17, 2023
Fall 2022 Spark Fund Awardees
ChE/COS Associate Professor Carolyn Lee-Parsons, ECE Professor Edmund Yeh, ChE Assistant Professor Ryan Koppes, and MIE Associate Professor Yaning Li are recipients of the Fall 2022 Spark Fund Awards from Northeastern’s Center for Research Innovation.
Mar 15, 2022
New Sutural Gabions will Resist Impact and Vibrations
MIE Associate Professor Yaning Li, in collaboration with Jongmin Shim from the University at Buffalo, is leading a $667K NSF grant for “Bio-Inspired Impact-Resistant Phononic Sutural Gabions.”
Aug 29, 2019
New Faculty Spotlight: Yaning Li
Yaning Li joins the Mechanical & Industrial Engineering department in August 2019 as an Associate Professor.