معرفی
Hai Yao is a Professor and Ernest R. Norville Endowed Chair in the Department of Bioengineering at Clemson University, serving as Associate Vice President for Biomedical Innovation and Associate Chair for the Clemson-MUSC Bioengineering Program. He holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Miami (2004). His research focuses on musculoskeletal biomechanics, multiscale modeling, biotransport, and tissue engineering, with emphasis on temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders, intervertebral disc degeneration, and ocular biomechanics. He leads the Tissue Biomechanics Laboratory, a joint program with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).
Key research areas include quantitative relationships between mechanical loading and tissue degeneration, corneal crosslinking mechanisms, and spinal implant design. Yao has secured significant funding from NIH/NIDCR, NIH/NIAMS, NSF, and DoD. He teaches graduate courses in Structural Biomechanics, Transport Processes, and Finite Element Methods.
Notable awards include the Dr. James Russell Neff Award and NIH COBRE grants. His lab has produced over 15 doctoral students and postdocs, with recent milestones including a Nature Communications publication on 3D molecular diffusion (2021) and a Nature Materials collaboration (2019). The lab also develops novel imaging and computational tools for tissue analysis.
