Assistant Professor and David C. Crawford Faculty Scholar Shelly Zhang has been selected as the 2025 Haftka Young Investigator Award recipient from the International Society for Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization (ISSMO).
The prestigious award recognizes outstanding researchers early in their careers for achievements and promising groundbreaking research in the field of structural and multidisciplinary optimization. It is awarded to one individual every two years, and is named in honor of the foundational research contributions of Professor Raphael T. Haftka and his passion for mentoring young researchers.
Zhang's Haftka award citation reads as follows:
"For contributions to developing novel multi-physics and multi-material topology optimization methods and fabrication strategies to discover programmable materials and structures with extreme nonlinearity, for contributions to translating topology optimization to real-world applications, and for contributions to the ISSMO community through educational materials, journal editorial services, and leadership roles."
Zhang was presented with the award on May 22, during ISSMO's 2025 World Congress on Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization(WCSMO) General Assembly in Kobe, Japan. WCSMO is a biennial gathering, serving as a longstanding catalyst for innovation and collaboration in the field of optimization. Over the years, it has evolved into a renowned international event, uniting experts, researchers, and practicians from all over the world to advance the emerging fields of computational design and structural optimization across different disciplines.
This recognition adds to the growing list of accolades for Zhang. Most recently, Zhang received the Henry Hess Early Career Publication Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers(ASME). She was also selected as the recipient of the 2025 ASME Thomas J. R. Hughes Young Investigator Award for special achievements in applied mechanics.
In the past year for she has received additional recognition as an outstanding young investigator including the EMI Leonardo da Vinci Award from the Engineering Mechanics Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers for engineers early in their careers who have made promising ground-breaking developments in the field of Engineering Mechanics and Mechanical Sciences. She again received recognition for her research and as a top performer in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Young Faculty Award (YFA) pool, receiving the selective (DARPA) Director's Fellowship Award.
Zhang was awarded a grant in November 2024 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support her work in metamaterials optimization. This project is a collaboration with Professor Stefano Gonella from the University of Minnesota; it aims to understand and design a new class of topological metamaterials with special surface and wave properties that can be programmed to display various levels of softness and rigidity, allowing them to manage intelligently the loads/impact applied by the outside environment.
Joining the CEE faculty in 2018, Zhang is also an alumna of CEE at Illinois (BS '12, MS '14) and is affiliated with the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Her research interests are in the general areas of topology optimization, stochastic programming, machine learning, multi-scale metamaterials, additive manufacturing and 3D/4D printing. She directs the MISSION Laboratory (MultI-functional Structures and Systems desIgn OptimizatioN), which focuses on exploring topology optimization, stochastic programming, and additive manufacturing to develop multi-functional, resilient, sustainable, and innovative engineering infrastructure and materials for applications at different scales, from as large as high-rise buildings to as small as material microstructures.