The recipient of 2019 Lee Hsun Lecture Series—Lee Hsun Lecture Award, Prof. Mo Li from the Georgia Institute of Technology, visited Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMR, CAS) from April 7 to 13，2023. 

During the visit, Prof. Mo Li gave a lecture entitled "From patterning heterogeneity to nanoglass: An novel approach to harden and toughen metallic glasses". Prof. Mo Li presented a systematic investigation of heterogeneities and how they affect mechanical properties. He discussed their efforts in designing different “patterns” and testing how effective they are in alter mechanical properties in both continuum scale as well as atomic scale which leads to the emerging idea of nanoglass (NG) which utilizes nanoscale constraints to alter mechanical properties. He also showed that the working mechanism of NG is closely related to the “spatial patterning of heterogeneity” that could have remarkable mechanical properties if proper length scales of the heterogeneities are organized and function synchronously. The lecture received a warm response from the researchers and graduate students, and there was a lively discussion. 

During the visit, Prof. Mo Li had academic exchanges with Academician LU Ke and some researchers from Material Dynamics Division, Metallic Nano-Materials Division, Advanced Ceramics and Composites Division, Advanced Steel Materials Division and Material Design, and Computation Division of Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science. He also had a lab tour in Technical Support Division.

Prof. Mo Li received his Ph.D. in applied physics in 1994 from California Institute of Technology. After a brief staying as a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech and the Argonne National Laboratory, he joined Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York. He came back from the investment bank to academia in 1998.  

From 1998 to 2001, he was an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University. Currently, he is a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prof. Mo Li's research focuses on understanding fundamental properties and processes of materials, and predicting material behaviors. The approaches used in his research are a blend of those from statistical physics, solid state physics, materials science, metallurgy, mechanics and large scale, high performance computing. His research focuses on algorithm development, simulation, and theoretical analysis.

Prof. LIU Gang, Deputy Director of IMR presents the plaque of Lee Hsun Lecture Series to Prof. Mo Li. (Image by IMR)

Prof. Mo Li delivers a lecture. (Image by IMR)