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My name is Shaoting Lin. I was born in Chongming, Shanghai, the 3rd largest island in China. Chongming is such an isolated place that I have few chances to get outside due to limited transportation when I was young. I yearn for new world, new people, and new knowledge, which bring me to Central Shanghai, Beijing, and Boston.
I have dreamed of becoming a scientist since I was in high school though I definitely had no idea on real science then. I was fascinated by classical scientists' adventure stories on exploring new knowledge. The dream of being a scientist was vague when I was young, but i was gradually shaping the scientist/researcher I am devoted to be after years' study and research training. “Bring up hypothesis boldly while prove it conscientiously and carefully” is my central research theme. I also feel very grateful for a number of my lifelong mentors, which motivates me to be a competent mentor, instructor, and advisor as they do in near future. I hope to be the person who can propagate the doctrine, impart professional knowledege, and resolve doubts. I first received training as a mechanical engineer during my study in the department of automotive engineering at Tsinghua University. When I entered MIT pursuing PhD degree with Prof. Xuanhe Zhao, I was fascinated by the mechanics and physics of hydrogels, a smart polymeric material infiltrated with high water content. They behave as elastic solids, but meanwhile they impart major characteristics of water. They allow versatile transportation include diffusion, migration, and reaction for self-healing, self-regulation, sensing, etc. They share a lot of similarities of human tissues, therefore they are regarded as ideal material candidates for tissue replacement. They share the similar density and bulk modulus as water, therefore they can be camouflaged in water as underwater “invisible” robots. Plenty of applications enabled by unique properties of hydrogels are being developed including stretchable electronics, wearable bandage, soft robotics, ingestible devices, energy-harvesting devices, etc. However, the understanding of such smart yet powerful material is still quite limited. How does the design of molecular structure of hydrogels manipulate their macroscopic properties? How does the competing of entropic energy (i.e. entropy of chain configurations) and enthalpyic energy (i.e. bond energy) govern the thermodynamic equivalence under mechanical, electrical, and thermal simulations in hydrogels? I am eager to understand more, explore more, and discover more about underlying mechanics and physics in hydrogels. |
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News and Updates
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April 2019
Our paper on the design of muscle-like hydrogels by mechanical training is accepted by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. March 2019 Our paper on the design of pure PEDOT:PSS hydrogel is published on Nature Communications. January 2019 My paper on the design of anti-fatigue-fracture hydrogels is published on Science Advances. |
January 2019
Our paper on the application of hydrogels as ingestible gastroretentive devices is published on Nature Communications. July 2018 My coauthored paper on the design of hydrogel electronics modified by single-walled CNT is published on ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. |
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Contact
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External links
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Phone: (617)794-3860
Email: shaoting@mit.edu |
