H. Jerry Qi

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Woodruff Professor

The George Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

Site Director, NSF IUCRC SHAP3D (Science of Heterogeneous Additive Printing of 3D Materials)

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Office: MRDC 4104, RBI 377
Phone: 404-385-2457
Fax: 404-385-8535
Email: qih@me.gatech.edu

Education

  • BS (1994), MS, PhD (1999), Tsinghua University
  • ScD (2003), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Postdoc Associate (2004), Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Professional Experience

  • 2016-Present, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • 2025, Visiting Professor, Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR, Singapore
  • 2023-2024, Visiting Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  • 2022, Visiting Professor, University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard, Sevenans, France
  • 2018-2020, Yangtz River Scholar (Type B, visiting), Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
  • 2014-2017, Tengfei Scholar Professor (Type B, visiting), Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
  • 2014-2016, Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • 2004-2014, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor (tenured 2010), University of Colorado Boulder

Awards

  • The ASME Warner T. Koiter Medal (2024)
  • Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate (2024, 2025)
  • The T. H. H. Pian Award from International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences (2024)
  • James R. Rice Medal, Society of Engineering Science (2023)
  • Gerhard Kanig Lecture by the Berlin-Brandenburg Association for Polymer Research (2019)
  • Sigma Xi Best Faculty Paper Award (2018)
  • ASME Fellow (2015)
  • The Woodruff Faculty Fellow (2015)
  • J. T. Oden Faculty Fellowship, UT Austin, (2012)
  • AFRL summer faculty fellowship (2010-2012)
  • Mechanical Engineering Outstanding Research Award (2009)
  • Mechanical Engineering Chair Faculty Fellow (2008)
  • NSF Career Award (2007)
  • Woodward Outstanding Mechanical Engineering Faculty (2006-2007)
  • University of Colorado Graduate School Junior Faculty Development Award (2005)

Research Areas

  • Mechanics and Physics of Polymers
  • Nonlinear constitutive models for soft materials
  • 3D printing of polymers and ceramics
  • 4D Printing
  • Polymer recycling and sustainability
  • Automated lab for material discovery

For complete CV, click here.

Prof. Qi’s research is in the broad field of nonlinear mechanics of active polymers with a focus on developing the fundamental understanding of their multi-field properties and advancing their processing methods. He has made significant contributions at the intersection of nonlinear mechanics of polymers, additive manufacturing (3D printing), and recycling to develop multifunctional materials/composites and structures and sustainable manufacturing.

He is a world-leading researcher in the nonlinear mechanics and 3D/4D printing of active polymers. His 2013 paper titled “Active materials by four-dimension printing” [1] is the first journal paper in the emerging field of 4D printing. His fundamental research has led to many industrial applications. For example, his research on polymers with dynamic bonds [2,3] has led to a startup company, Mallinda (https://mallinda.com/), founded in 2014 by a student involved in this research [2,3]. Mallinda focuses on developing recyclable and reprocessable thermoset composites. His research on stretch-induced crystallization [4] has led to the establishment of PolyMaker (https://us.polymaker.com/), which uses stretch-induced crystallization to enhance the stiffness of 3D printing filaments to reduce clogging. Today, Polymaker is one of the premium brands in 3D printing filaments, and its 2024 sales have reached $100M. The grayscale 3D printing technique he developed is adopted by Toyota Research Institute of North America (TRINA) to investigate the use of grayscale 3D printing to directly fabricate functional structures for future mobility applications. The constitutive models he developed for thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) [5], shape memory polymers [6,7], and photocuring mechanics [8] are widely used by academic researchers as well as industry, such as Boeing. As the site director of the NSF Industry/University Collaborative Research Center (IUCRC) on Science of Heterogeneous Additive Printing of 3D Materials (SHAP3D), he also promotes the connections between university research and industrial needs. During Phase I of SHAP3D (2018-2025), innovations from the center were transitioned to industry partners for prototyping, manufacturing, and process monitoring. These include Fused Deposition of Multiple Materials (FD3M) to Triton, elastomer printing to Vibram, and foam printing to Hutchinson/AFRL.

Prof. Qi published more than 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He was listed as one of the Highly Cited Researchers (Crossfield) by Clarivate in 2024 and 2025. He graduated 16 Ph.D. students and 9 Master students, hosted 9 visiting Ph.D. students (of whom he served as their main advisor for their Ph.D. thesis), and supervised 10 postdocs. Among the 25 Ph.D. students and 10 postdocs, 21 are currently working in academia around the world. His research has been funded by federal agencies, such as NSF, AFOSR, ONR, and DARPA, as well as industry, including Cornerstone Research Group, Sandia, Boston Scientific, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, HP, Toyota North America, etc.

He is a recipient of Sigma Xi Best Faculty Paper Award (2018), Gerhard Kanig Lecture by the Berlin-Brandenburg Association for Polymer Research (2019), the James R. Rice Medal from Society of Engineering Science (2023), the T. H. H. Pian Award from International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences (SES) (2024), and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Warner T. Koiter Medal (2024).

He was the founding chair of the Mechanics of Soft Materials Technical Committee of AMD of ASME (2009), which is one of the most active technical committees in AMD. Currently, he serves on the Board of Directors of SES. He is also the Vice President of SES and will become its President in 2027. During his tenure on the Board of Directors of SES, he helped establish the Emmy Noether Medal, which recognizes a mid-career researcher in the field of engineering sciences for outstanding contributions in a cross-disciplinary and/or emerging area. He also helped establish Student and Postdoc Research awards, which will start in 2026.

He organized the second 4D Materials Design and Additive Manufacturing Conference (2023), which was the first in-person conference of the 4D Printing Society. He organized the 2025 SES Annual Technical Conference (10/12/25-10/15/25, Atlanta, GA), which attracted more than 850 attendees from 21 countries. He was also the co-chair of the 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Multifunctional Materials and Structures (1/25/26-1/30/26, Ventura, CA), which featured 22 invited talks from researchers worldwide.

Summary of Major Works

Active polymers, such as shape memory polymers (SMPs), liquid crystal elastomers, hydrogels, light-activated polymers (LAP), and dynamic covalent network polymers (or vitrimers), are at the forefront of materials research for multifunctional applications. They can undergo large shape changes in response to environmental stimuli, such as heat and light. The shape-changing behavior of active polymers has inspired novel concepts for a wide range of applications, including morphing structures, programmable materials, actuators, and sensors. Their integration with 3D printing (or additive manufacturing) also leads to the birth of 4D printing. Dr. Qi has established an internationally recognized leading group in four areas: 1) 4D printing; 2) multimaterial 3D printing; 3) multiphysics modeling of active polymers; 4) polymer recycling.

4D printing Recent developments in 3D printing enable the precise placement of multiple materials to create complex 3D configurations. This unprecedented design freedom has motivated a myriad of studies and applications aimed at creating heterogeneous engineered structures. Dr. Qi pioneered the concept of 4D printing, in which the printed material/structure can change its shape after 3D printing, with time as the 4th dimension of shape formation. In his 4D printing paper [1], which is the first journal article in the 4D printing field, he demonstrated this concept through printed active composites, in which the fiber material was an SMP. Since 2013, he has published about 100 papers in the field of 3D/4D printing. His works on 4D printing were widely reported by public media (more than 100 reports), such as Design News, Physics News, Composites Today, and GizMag, NPR, and ABC, etc. A figure from his 2017 work [9] was included in Soft Matter’s promotional brochure in 2019. Today, 4D Printing has been identified as an emerging technology in the Gartner Technology Hype Cycle and has exploded worldwide as a new research and technology field with major funding initiatives by governments and industry in the US, Europe, and Asia. Recently, the 4D Printing Society was founded to bring together 4D Printing researchers from across the world. Because of his leadership in this field, the first in-person 4D printing conference was held at Georgia Tech in September 2023.

Multimaterial 3D printing One highly demanded area in 3D printing is to fabricate parts with different properties, or multimaterial 3D printing. This is very challenging due to the significant differences in processing conditions across materials with different properties. Dr. Qi group is the leading group in developing multimaterial 3D printing techniques for polymers. They developed a multi-material, multi-method (m4) 3D printer [10], the first of its kind worldwide. They also combined two different printing techniques, direct ink writing (DIW) and digital light processing (DLP), into a single platform [11], enabling the fabrication of functional structures [12,13]. Recently, they developed a novel single vat grayscale DLP (g-DLP) printing to create “multimaterial-like” parts [14, 15]. This new technology represents a breakthrough as DLP printing is traditionally regarded as a single-material printing approach. The g-DLP 3D printing method is actively pursued by researchers at various institutions, including UT Austin and Sandia. In addition, Toyota Research Institute of North America (TRINA) has adopted the g-DLP technique to investigate g-DLP 3D printing for fabricating functional structures for future mobility applications.

Multiphysics modeling and applications of active polymers Dr. Qi’s work in this area mainly focuses on SMPs and LAPs. For SMPs, he and his collaborators identified two fundamental mechanisms that can lead to shape memory effects: a dramatic change in relaxation time in amorphous polymers and phase evolution in semicrystalline polymers. They developed two constitutive models based on these mechanisms. These models are among the first two 3D constitutive models for SMPs ([6,7]. His study of two-way shape memory effects due to stretch-induced crystallization [4] has led to the establishment of PolyMaker, (https://us.polymaker.com/), which uses stretch-induced crystallization to enhance the stiffness of the 3D printing filament to avoid clogging during printing, Today, PolyMaker is one of the premium brands in 3D printing filaments, and its 2024 sales have reached $100M.  LAPs are a novel group of active polymers that can deform upon light irradiation. They developed the first 3D constitutive model for LAPs [16] by considering multiphysical processes, including light propagation, light-induced chemical reactions, material structure changes, and stress relaxation. They also used the model to guide the design of photo origami [17], which was selected for APL’s 50th Anniversary Collection. He has published about 50 papers related to SMPs and LAPs. He also developed the first constitutive model that captures the change of mechanical properties during the photopolymerization process [8]. Boeing uses the polymer curing model to investigate the curing process of sealant materials.

Polymer recycling Polymer recycling has become an increasingly important topic in the past 5-10 years. Dr. Qi’s work started with the modeling of vitrimers, which are network polymers containing dynamic bonds with bond exchange reactions (BERs). BERs can rearrange the network connections, leading to reshaping, welding, reprocessing, and recycling. He started to work on vitrimers in 2013. Their initial work on developing polyimine-based vitrimer and composites [2,3] has led to a start-up company Mallinda (https://mallinda.com/) by the student involved in this work. Mallinda recently launched commercial Vitrimax™ Versatile Hot Melt (VHM) Resin, which is a revolutionary vitrimer-based composite resin system that transforms how manufacturers process and recycle high-performance composites. Dr. Qi currently serves on Mallinda’s Science Advisory Board. Dr. Qi group also demonstrated the powder-based reprocessing of vitrimers [18]. They further developed the recycling method by using small molecules to decompose vitrimers [19]. Several papers were published on this new approach, including one on the recycling of carbon fiber reinforced thermosetting composite [20] and two issued patents [21, 22]. More recently, his group developed a network polymer that can be depolymerized into monomers at low temperatures [23, 24]. This new polymer has properties that are close to the very popular but not recyclable PDMS and can be 3D printed, offering a potential solution for sustainable additive manufacturing.

NSF IUCRC SHAP3D SHAP3D (Science of Heterogeneous Additive Printing of 3D Materials) is an NSF Industry/University Collaborative Research Center (IUCRC) and was established in 2018 by three universities (U Mass Lowell (lead), U Conn, and GT). It conducts pre-competitive research and fills the gap between typical NSF fundamental research and higher TRL centers such as American Make. The industrial members (including past members) include Stratasys, HP, Markforged, Desktop Metal, Raytheon, Boeing, AFRL, Army Soldier Center, Army Armaments Center, Sandia, Akita, etc. It has funded more than 50 projects and trained more than 85 students and postdocs. It helped to increase the connections between university faculty and industry. During Phase I of SHAP3D (2018-2025), innovations from the center were transitioned to industry partners for prototyping, manufacturing, and process monitoring. These include Fused Deposition of Multiple Materials (FD3M) to Triton, elastomer printing to Vibram, and foam printing to Hutchinson/AFRL. The center has entered in Phase II in 2024.

Prof. Jerry Qi was the founding chair of the Mechanics of Soft Materials Technical Committee of AMD of ASME (2009), which is one of the most active technical committees in AMD. He was also the vice chair (2007-2009) and chair (2009-2011) of the Mechanics of Time-Dependent Material Technical Division of the Society of Experimental Mechanics. Currently, he serves on the editorial board of seven international journals. He also serves on the Board of Directors of SES. He is also the Vice President of SES and will be the President of SES in 2027. During his tenure on the Board of Directors of SES, he helped establish a new award, the Emmy Noether Medal, which recognizes a mid-career researcher in the field of engineering sciences for outstanding contributions in a cross-disciplinary and/or emerging area. He also helped establish Student and Postdoc Research awards, which will start in 2026.

He organized the second 4D Materials Design and Additive Manufacturing Conference (2023), which was the first in-person conference of the 4D Printing Society. He organized the 2025 SES Annual Technical Conference (10/12/25-10/15/25, Atlanta, GA). The 2025 SES conference attracted more than 850 attendees from 21 countries. He was also the co-chair of the 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Multifunctional Materials and Structures (1/25/26-1/30/26, Ventura, CA), which featured 22 invited talks from researchers around the world.

[1]    Ge, Q., Qi, H.J., Dunn, M.L., Active materials by four-dimension printing, Applied Physics Letters, 2013, 103, 131901. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4819837

[2]    Taynton, P., Yu, K., Shoemaker, R.K., Jin, Y., Qi, H.J., Zhang, W., Water-driven malleability in a highly recyclable covalent network polymer, Advanced Materials, 2014, 26(23), 3938-3942. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201400317

[3]    Taynton, P., Ni, H., Zhu, C., Yu, Y., Loob, S., Jin, Y., Qi, H.J., Zhang, W., Repairable woven carbon fiber composites with full recyclability enabled by malleable polyimine networks, Advanced Materials, 2016 28 (15), 2904-2909. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201505245

[4]   Westbrook, K.K., Parakh, V., Chung, T., Mather, P.T., Wan, L.C., Dunn, M.L., Qi, H.J., Constitutive modeling of shape memory effects in semicrystalline polymers with stretch induced crystallization, Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology, 2010, 132(4): 041010. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4001964

[5]    Qi, H.J., Boyce, M.C., Stress–strain behavior of thermoplastic polyurethanes, Mechanics of Materials, 2005, 37 (8), 817-839. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mechmat.2004.08.001

[6]    Qi, H.J., Nguyen, T.D., Castro, F., Yakacki, C.M., Shandas, R., Finite deformation thermo-mechanical behavior of thermally induced shape memory polymers, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 2008, 56 (5), 1730-1751. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmps.2007.12.002

[7] Nguyen, T.D., Qi, H.J., Castro, F., Long, K.N., A thermoviscoelastic model for amorphous shape memory polymers: incorporating structural and stress relaxation, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 2008, 56 (9), 2792-2814. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmps.2008.04.007

[8]    Wu, J, Zhao, Z., Hamel, C.M., Mu, X., Kuang, X., Guo, Z., Qi, H.J., Evolution of material properties during free radical photopolymerization, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 2018, 112, 25-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmps.2017.11.018

[9]    Yuan, C., Roach, D.J., Dunn, C.K., Mu, Q., Kuang, X., Yakacki, C.M., Wang, T.J, Yu, K., Qi, H.J., 3D printed reversible shape changing soft actuators assisted by liquid crystal elastomers, Soft Matter, 2017, 13 (33), 5558-5568. https://doi.org/10.1039/C7SM00759K

[10] Roach, D., Hamel, C.M., Dunn, C.K., Johnson, M.V., Kuang, K., Qi, H.J., The m4 3D printer: A multi-material multi-method additive manufacturing platform for future 3D printed structures, Additive Manufacturing, 2019, 29, 100819. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2019.100819

[11] Peng, X., Kuang, X., Roach, D.J., Wang, Y., Hamel, C.M., Lu, C., Qi, H.J., Integrating digital light processing with direct ink writing for hybrid 3D printing of functional structures and devices, Additive Manufacturing, 2021, 40, 101911. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2021.101911

[12] Peng, X., Wu, S., Sun, X., Yue, L., Montgomery, S.M., Demoly, F., Zhou, K., Zhao, R.R., Qi, H.J., 4D printing of freestanding liquid crystal elastomers via hybrid additive manufacturing, Advanced Materials, 2022, 34 (39), 2204890. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202204890

[13] Roach, D.J., Sun, X., Peng, X., Demoly, F., Zhou, K., Qi, H.J., 4D Printed Multifunctional Composites With Cooling‐Rate Mediated Tunable Shape Morphing, Advanced Functional Materials , 2022, 32 (36), 2203236. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202203236

[14] Kuang, X., Wu, J., Chen, K., Zhao, Z., Ding, Z., Hu, F., Fang, D., Qi, H.J., Grayscale digital light processing 3D printing for highly functionally graded materials, Science Advances, 2019, 5 (5), eaav5790. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aav5790

[15] Yue, L., Montgomery, S.M., Sun, X., Yu, L., Song, Y., Nomura, T. Tanaka, M., Qi, H.J., Single-vat single-cure grayscale digital light processing 3D printing of materials with large property difference and high stretchability, Nature Communications, 2023, 14 (1), 1251. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36909-y

[16] Long, K.N., Scott, T.F., Qi, H.J., Bowman, C.N., Dunn, M.L., Photomechanics of light-activated polymers, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 2009, 57 (7), 1103-1121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmps.2009.03.003

[17] Ryu, J., D’Amato, M., Cui, X., Long, K.N., Qi, H.J., Dunn, M.L., Photo-origami—bending and folding polymers with light, Applied Physics Letters, 2012, 100, 161908. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3700719

[18] Yu, K., Taynton, P., Zhang, W., Dunn, M.L., Qi, H.J., Reprocessing and recycling of thermosetting polymers based on bond exchange reactions, RSC Advances, 2014, 4 (20), 10108-10117. https://doi.org/10.1039/C3RA47438K

[19] Kuang, X., Zhou, Y., Shi, Q., Wang, T., Qi, H.J., Recycling of epoxy thermoset and composites via good solvent assisted and small molecules participated exchange reactions, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2018, 6 (7), 9189-9197. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b01538

[20] Yu, K., Shi, Q., Dunn, M.L., Wang, T., Qi, H.J., Carbon fiber reinforced thermoset composite with near 100% recyclability, Advanced Functional Materials, 2016, 26 (33), 6098-6106. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201602056

[21] Qi, H., Yu, K., Shi, Q., Methods of Recycling and Reshaping Thermosetting Polymers and Composites Thereof, US 10,829,612 B2 (11/2020).

[22] Qi, H., Yu, K., Shi, Q., Kuang, X., Methods of Recycling and Reshaping Thermosetting Polymers and Composites Thereof, US 11,421,095 B2 (08/2022).

[23] Yue, L., Su, Y.L., Li, M., Yu, L., Montgomery, S.M., Sun, X., Finn, M.G., Gutekunst, W.R., Ramprasad, R., Qi, H.J., One-Pot Synthesis of Depolymerizable δ-Lactone Based Vitrimers, Advanced Materials, 2023, 35 (29), 2300954. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202300954

[24] Yue, L., Su, Y.L., Li, M., Yu, L., Sun, X., Cho, J., Brettmann, B., Gutekunst, W.R., Ramprasad, R., Qi, H.J., Chemical circularity in 3D printing with biobased Δ‐valerolactone, Advanced Materials, 2024, 36 (34), 2310040. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202310040

Awards:

The ASME Warner T. Koiter Medal (2024)

        The ASME Warner T. Koiter is one of the most prestigious senior award (after Timoshenko Award) in Solid Mechanics. Established in 1996, it is bestowed in recognition of distinguished contributions to the field of solid mechanics, with special emphasis on the effective blending of theoretical and applied elements of the discipline and on a high degree of leadership within the international solid mechanics community.

        The 2024 Koiter Medal cited “Prof. Qi has made significant contributions to fundamental nonlinear mechanics and multiphysics behaviors of active polymers through experimentation and theoretical modeling and in applying the fundamental understanding to the emerging field of 4D printing”.

Highly Cited Researcher in Crossfield by Clarivate (2024, 2025)

The selected researchers have authored multiple Highly Cited Papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for their field(s) in the Web of Science Core Collection over the past eleven years. Highly Cited Researchers demonstrate significant and broad influence in their field(s) of research.

The T. H. H. Pian Award from International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences (ICCES) (2024)

        The ICCES T.H.H. Pian Award is given to a researcher, from anywhere in the world, in recognition of her/his contributions to any area germane to the ICCES conferences, and in recognition of her/his services to ICCES. This award honors Professor THH Pian, who for nearly 50 years at MIT, played a significant role in educating several generations of students in the areas of structural and computational mechanics.

        The 2024 award cites Prof. Qi “for his pioneering contributions to the constitutive modeling of mechanical and multiphysical behaviors of active polymers and 4D printing”.James R. Rice Medal, Society of Engineering Science (2023)

        The James R. Rice Medal is awarded to a mid-career researcher in the field of engineering sciences who has had a substantial impact in his/her field. It is the only mid-career award in SES. At the time of the nomination, eligible candidates must be within 10-20 years of earning their PhD or equivalent degree.

        The 2023 James R. Rice Medal cites Prof. Qi “for his pioneering work in understanding the mechanical and multiphysical behavior of soft active materials, and for developing novel applications of these materials in recycling and 4D printing”

Gerhard Kanig Lecture by the Berlin-Brandenburg Association for Polymer Research (2019)

        The Gerhard Kanig Lecture is named after Gerhard Kanig, a renowned polymer scientist, and typically features distinguished speakers who have made significant contributions to polymer science and engineering.

        The 2019 Gerhard Kanig Lecture was given by Prof. Qi during PolyDays Conference (2019)  because of “his pioneering scientific research in 4D printing”.

Sigma Xi Best Faculty Paper Award (2018)

        Prof. Qi shared this award with Prof. Glaucio Paulino for their work “K Liu, J Wu, GH Paulino, HJ Qi, Programmable deployment of tensegrity structures by stimulus-responsive polymers, Scientific reports 7 (1), 3511”.

  • ASME Fellow (2015)
  • Tengfei Scholar Professor (Type B, visiting) of Xi’an Jiaotong University (2014-2017)
  • T. Oden Faculty Fellowship, UT Austin, (2012)
  • AFRL Summer Faculty Fellowship (2010-2012)

NSF Career Award (2007)