Professor Yanfei Gao, the associate department head for graduate studies in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), has been selected as a 2026 Brimacombe Medalist by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS). 

The Brimacombe Medal is the highest award the TMS, a global society for professional and student materials engineers, confers to mid-career researchers. It recognizes researchers who have made extensive contributions to materials science and engineering both in terms of research achievements and in sustained service to the profession.  

“This is a tremendous honor and a humbling recognition,” said Gao, who received his award at the 155th Annual TMS Meeting and Exhibition in San Diego, California, this month. “When I see the list of past recipients, I am truly honored to be counted among them. To be recognized in this way by TMS means a great deal to me personally. It reflects the collective efforts of my students, collaborators, and colleagues, and it motivates me to continue contributing to the field and to the society.” 

Gao’s award recognizes his foundational contributions to the research areas of small-scale mechanics, material failure at extreme conditions, and solid-state additive manufacturing. His nominators cited many historically unsolvable problems in the field that Gao has resolved, including making materials ductile (flexible), understanding friction at an atomic level, and a recent “holy grail” discovery that makes it possible to study failure fundamentals. 

They also emphasized his ability to develop new ideas in cutting-edge research frontiers while guiding his PhD students to achieve greatness.  

“Professor Gao is a leading researcher with a strong national and international reputation,” said MSE Department Head and Cook Eversole Endowed Professor Mohsen Asle Zaeem. “He has significantly enhanced the MSE graduate student experience and strengthened our academic programs. His recognition as a Brimacombe Medalist reflects the high impact of his research and leadership, and it is a proud moment for both the MSE department and the Tickle College of Engineering. This distinction is reserved for a select group of exceptional researchers, placing him among the most distinguished scholars in the field.” 

The ‘Holy Grail’ of Material Behavior 

Current efforts to push materials to their absolute limits—to operate in higher temperatures, in more extreme environments, or at a smaller scale than ever before—are also causing materials to fail in unknown ways. 

As an outstanding theorist, Gao is often approached by experimentalists from the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) who have encounteredsomething in the lab that isn’t explained by existing models. 

“I aim to uncover the fundamental mechanisms that explain why materials fail or perform in certain ways and then translate that understanding into predictive tools that engineers can use,” Gao said. “I often say I aim to think the unthinkable and to solve the unsolvable.”

One of Gao’s most significant research contributions was his recent development of a method that uses neutron and synchrotron X-ray measurements, such as those captured by ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source, to effectively investigate crack-tip damage in various materials. 

When a crack forms in a material, there is always a leading point—a weak spot where further fracture can occur. While it may seem that the widening of a crack is a simple matter of bonds breaking, in reality there are so many complex forces at play that predicting how the damage will continue has been considered a “holy grail” in the field for years. 

“We have mechanics theories that apply to a much longer scale, but the crack tip itself is too tiny to measure,” Gao explained. “We developed a method that allows us to construct what’s happening at that fine-scale crack tip from the surroundings.” 

Gao and his collaborators used measurements from outside the crack tip to extrapolate what is happening at the unreadable point, solving the “holy grail” issue and creating new opportunities for researchers to utilize national user facilities to solve long-standing fracture mechanics problems. 

“There’s some measurements you may never be able to access,” Gao said, “but if you have good modeling, and good theory, you don’t need those measurements.” 

Service at the Student and National Level 

Gao has devoted considerable time and effort to supporting younger engineers and improving MSE programs throughout the nation. 

His PhD students are deeply involved in his groundbreaking research, including his recent work on crack-tip damage, earning them student awards from the high-impact Acta Journals and paper and poster awards from TMS. 

“Seeing my students win these awards is one of the proudest achievements of my career,” he said. 

Gao is also very involved with career development for early and mid-career faculty in MSE and throughout TCE through his prior role as a faculty fellow in the Associate Dean’s Office for Faculty and Engagement. He is committed to ensuring that his younger colleagues have access to key professional development activities, research planning and funding assistance, and the resources to maintain a healthy balance between work, family, and mental health. 

Gao has achieved the broadest impact on future engineers as an evaluator for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the international private organization that evaluates engineering bachelor’s degrees across the United States and many other countries. He has evaluated five institutions in the US since becoming an evaluator through the TMS Accreditation Committee in 2021. 

Through both research and service, Gao looks forward to continuing to earn his Brimacombe Medalist status every day. 

“This award, and all the work I do, helps reflect the excellence of materials research locally,” he said. “When I visit other schools and they see that I am a very careful, very dedicated evaluator coming from UT, that elevates their respect for UT. This award is not just recognition for me, but for our research community. I am happy to help with UT’s reputation in this area.”

Contact

Izzie Gall ([email protected])