Yichen Yan
Papers
13
Total Citations
698
H-Index
11
About
Yichen Yan is pioneering the next generation of soft materials at the intersection of polymer chemistry, mechanics, and autonomous robotics. Her research centers on stimuli-responsive hydrogels and ionotronics—creating materials that can sense, actuate, and adapt like biological tissues. Yan’s most impactful contribution is the development of tunable hierarchically porous hydrogels that simultaneously enhance diffusivity and mechanical properties (200 citations), solving a long-standing trade-off in gel design. She has also advanced hydrogel ionotronics with ultra-low impedance and high signal fidelity across broad frequency and temperature ranges (91 citations), enabling stretchable electronics for wearables and soft robotics. Her comprehensive review on noncovalent aggregation in hydrogels (70 citations, 2025) has become an essential resource for the field. Yan’s work extends to liquid metal printing for stretchable circuits (62 citations), photo-oscillators for multifunctional actuation, and autonomous soft robots with physical intelligence. Notably, she developed on-scalp printed EEG e-tattoos for personalized brain monitoring, and bio-inspired multimodal soft actuators that self-adapt to environments. With over 700 total citations and rapidly growing influence, Yan is redefining what soft materials can achieve—from fundamental polymer physics to real-world robotic and biomedical applications.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2Stimuli-Responsive Polymers for Soft Robotics97 citations · 2021
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- 7Advancing physical intelligence for autonomous soft robots38 citations · 2025
- 8Tendon-inspired anti-freezing tough gels28 citations · 2021
- 9On-scalp printing of personalized electroencephalography e-tattoos19 citations · 2025
- 10Bio-inspired multimodal soft actuator with environmental self-adaptation15 citations · 2025