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About

Zhong You is a leading researcher in origami-inspired engineering, with expertise spanning mechanical metamaterials, deployable structures, robotics, and surgical devices. His work has fundamentally advanced the mathematical and mechanical understanding of origami as a design framework, demonstrating how geometric folding principles can be applied across scales and disciplines. Among his most influential contributions is his research on programmable stiffness and shape modulation in origami materials, which garnered over 112 citations and revealed the potential for distant actuation in folded structures. His studies on rigidly foldable origami tubes and the folding mechanics of tubular waterbomb patterns have established important theoretical foundations for metamaterial design, each attracting over 50 citations. More recently, his work on reconfigurable multistable metamorphous structures and kirigami-inspired 3D cellular assemblies has pushed the boundaries of shape-adaptive engineering. You has also translated these principles into practical applications, including 3D-printable robotic grippers, soft actuators with programmable re-foldability, and minimally invasive surgical manipulators with tunable stiffness. His body of work collectively underscores origami's transformative potential as a scale-independent, material-agnostic engineering tool, making him a pivotal figure in the growing field of structural origami and mechanical metamaterials.