Bio

Ph.D. ​Mechanics and Materials, Columbia University, 2012

Dr. Xu joined the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The University of Virginia in the fall of 2014. He received his PhD in Mechanics and Materials from Columbia University in 2012 under the supervision of Professor Xi Chen. He then came to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship working with Professor John A. Rogers on flexible and stretchable electronics and devices.

Awards

  • Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow 2012

Research Interests

  • Nanomechanics; Manufacturing; Low-dimensional functional materials and structures; soft-hard material integration

In the News

Selected Publications

  • Rotation of hard particles in a soft matrix. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids,101(2017)285-310 W Yang, Q Liu, Z Yue, X Li, B Xu
  • Tailoring Auxetic and Contractile Graphene to Achieve Interface Structures with Fully Mechanically Controllable Thermal Transports. Advanced Materials Interfaces 4 (2017)1700278. (selected back cover) Y Gao, W Yang, B Xu
  • A unified mechanics model of wettability gradient-driven motion of water droplet on solid surfaces. Extreme Mechanics Letters.9(2016)304-309 Q Liu, B Xu
  • A hybrid elastomeric foam-core/solid-shell spherical structure for enhanced energy absorption performance. International Journal of Solids and Structures. 92-93(2016)17-28. W Yang, Z Yue, B Xu
  • Mechanics-driven approaches to manufacturing—A perspective. Extreme Mechanics Letters. 7(2016)44-48 B Xu, J Rogers
  • Lattice mismatch dominant yet mechanically tunable thermal conductivity in bilayer heterostructures. ACS Nano. 10(2016)5431-5439. Y Gao, Q Liu, B Xu
  • An epidermal stimulation and sensing platform for sensorimotor prosthetic control, management of lower back exertion, and electrical muscle activation. Advanced Materials. 28(2016)4462-4471 (Selected Inside Back Cover) B Xu, A Akhtar, Y Liu, H Chen, WH Yeo, SII Park, B Boyce, H Kim, J Yu, HY Lai, S Jung, Y Zhou, J Kim, S Cho, Y Huang, T Bretl, J Rogers
  • Liquid evaporation-driven folding of graphene sheets. Applied Physics Letters. 108(2016)141906. Q Liu, Y Gao, B Xu
  • Actuating Water Droplets on Graphene via Surface Wettability Gradients. Langmuir 31 (2015), 9070-9075 Q Liu, B Xu
  • Mitigating impact/blast energy via a novel nanofluidic energy capture mechanism. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 62 (2014)194-208 B Xu, Y Qiao, X Chen
Google Scholar

Courses Taught

  • MAE2300 Engineering Mechanics-Statics
  • MAE6070 The Theory of Elasticity