2251 Homer A. Neal Lab
phone: 734.763.5349
About
Xiaoming Mao is a Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Her research explores a fascinating question: How can simple building blocks, when connected and interact in different ways, give rise to extraordinary properties and behaviors?
Working at the intersection of physics, mathematics, and materials science, she studies how geometry, topology, and collective interactions shape the world around us. Her research spans an impressive range of systems, from soft materials and biological networks to nanoparticles that spontaneously assemble into complex structures. Her work has helped advance the development of mechanical metamaterials with remarkable abilities, including structures that can change their stiffness, control the transmission of waves, resist damage, and even learn from experience.
Xiaoming received her undergraduate degrees in Physics and Economics from Peking University and her PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She joined the University of Michigan in 2012 and became a full professor in 2023. Her contributions have been recognized with the Department of Defense Newton Award for Transformative Ideas in 2020 and election as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2025.
Beyond her research, Xiaoming is passionate about connecting physics with other fields. She has even developed and taught a course called Physics of Art, exploring the beautiful and sometimes unexpected connections between scientific principles and artistic creativity.
Selected Publications
Entropic Effects in the Self-assembly of Open Lattices from Patchy Particles, (X. Mao), Physical Review E 87, 062319 (2013).
Entropy Favors Colloidal Open Lattices, (X. Mao, Q. Chen, and S. Granick), Nature Materials 12, 217 (2013).
Isostaticity, Auxetic Response, Surface Modes, and Conformal Invariance in Twisted Kagome Lattices, (K. Sun, A. Souslov, X. Mao, and T. C. Lubensky), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109, 12369 (2012).
Criticality and Isostaticity in Fiber Networks, (C. P. Broedersz, X. Mao, F. C. MacKintosh and T. C. Lubensky), Nature Physics 7, 983 (2011).
Soft Modes and Elasticity of Nearly Isostatic Lattices: Randomness and Dissipation, (X. Mao, N. Xu, and T. C. Lubensky), Physical Review Letters 104, 085504 (2010).
Soft Random Solids and Their Heterogeneous Elasticity, (X. Mao, P. M. Goldbart, X. Xing and A. Zippelius), Physical Review E 80, 031140 (2009).
Cavity Approach to the Random Solid State, (X. Mao, P. M. Goldbart, M. Mézard and M. Weigt), Physical Review Letters 95, 148302 (2005).
Field(s) of Study
- Soft Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
