Yong Huang, Ph.D.
Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering
Yong Huang’s research focuses on advanced manufacturing, particularly how materials behave during manufacturing processes and how innovative manufacturing methods can be used to tackle real-world problems in healthcare, energy and other applications.
At the core of his work is a deep curiosity about how materials, both solid and liquid, respond to high strain-rate conditions during advanced manufacturing. He’s especially known for his contributions to additive manufacturing, including inkjet-, laser- and extrusion- based bioprinting, where his team explores how to precisely and reliably print engineering and biological materials into three-dimensional structures. His work blends the rigor of physical science with a creative, problem-solving mindset.
As director of UF’s Advanced Manufacturing and System Integration Lab within the Center for Manufacturing Innovation, Huang leads a diverse and dynamic team. Together, they have developed techniques for scaffold-free bioprinting of tissues and organs, room-temperature metal printing and even additive manufacturing in space. The group also designs and prints micro-physiological systems – such as human respiratory models and brain simulants – for use in disease research and medical education.
Huang has authored more than 150 papers in top- tier journals such as Nature Reviews Methods Primers, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials and Matter. His work has been cited more than 12,000 times. He holds 13 patents, with one licensed technology, and has secured funding as principal investigator from the U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.
His contributions have earned him national recognition, including the 2024 Society of Manufacturing Engineers Sargent Progress Award and the 2025 American Society of Mechanical Engineers Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal. He served in leadership roles with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and served as a reviewer and editor for top journals in the field.
Huang is equally committed to education and mentorship. He was recently honored with the college-level Faculty Doctoral Mentoring Award. Many of his Ph.D. students have earned departmental research and teaching honors, a reflection of his hands-on, student-centered approach to training the next generation of researchers.
Huang earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Through his work, he continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in manufacturing and inspire the minds who will carry that work forward.