Dr. Jiayao Ma is an associate professor at School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University, and a Tianjin "1000 Youth Talents Plan” Expert. He obtained his Ph.D. in Engineering Science from Oxford University, UK, in 2011. Then he worked as post-doctoral research assistant at Oxford University before he joined Tianjin University in 2015.

Dr. Ma’s research interests include energy absorption of thin-walled origami structures, origami mechanical metamaterials, and minimally invasive medical foldables. He is currently the primary investigator of one NSFC funded project (No. 51575377). He has published 7 journal papers, 12 conference papers, and 6 patents (1 granted Chinese patent, 4 pending Chinese patents, and 1 PCT in UK).