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About

Xuanhe Zhao is a pioneering engineer and materials scientist whose research sits at the intersection of soft materials, robotics, and biomedical engineering. A professor at MIT, Zhao has fundamentally advanced our understanding of how soft matter can be engineered to achieve extraordinary mechanical and functional properties, with his work attracting well over 10,000 citations across his most influential publications alone. Zhao's contributions span several transformative directions. His groundbreaking work on ferromagnetic soft materials — including magnetically programmable shape-transforming structures and continuum robots capable of navigating complex biological environments — has opened entirely new frontiers in minimally invasive medicine and untethered robotics (2,128 and 1,258 citations, respectively). Equally impactful is his pioneering research on hydrogels: developing tough bonding strategies for adhering hydrogels to diverse surfaces (1,131 citations), designing anti-fatigue-fracture hydrogels inspired by cartilage, and creating hydrogel-elastomer hybrids that mimic mammalian skin (1,001 citations). Beyond materials design, Zhao has demonstrated remarkable ingenuity in translating these materials into functional systems — from hydraulic robots camouflaged underwater to soft wall-climbing machines. His 2021 review on unconventional polymer networks (1,071 citations) has become an essential reference for the field, cementing his reputation as one of the defining voices in next-generation soft matter science.