Assistant Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering
- Structural Engineering Area
- Mechanics and Physics of Solids & Fluids Area
Affiliated Faculty, UMN Data Science Initiative (DSI)
Faculty Scholar, Center for Transportation Studies (CTS)
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Biography
Dr. Qizhi (“KaiChi”) He (/hə/) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering at the University of Minnesota (UMN). He received his M.A. in Applied Mathematics (2016) and Ph.D. in Structural Engineering and Computational Science (2018) from the University of California, San Diego. Prior to joining UMN in 2022, he was a postdoctoral research associate in the Scientific Machine Learning Group at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Dr. He's research lies at the intersection of computational mechanics, scientific machine learning, and high-performance scientific computing. His group develops hybrid physics–AI methods for predictive simulation, inverse analysis, and data-driven modeling of complex multiphysics systems. Current research focuses on differentiable computational mechanics, neural-integrated simulation, reduced-order modeling, and digital twins, with applications to Earth and subsurface systems, natural hazards, advanced materials, and resilient infrastructure. Dr. He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (2026). He serves on the ASCE/EMI technical committees on Computational Mechanics and Machine Learning in Mechanics and is a member of the Editorial Boards of Computers and Geotechnics and Acta Mechanica Sinica.
Education
- Ph.D. in Structural Engineering & Computational Science, University of California San Diego
- M.A. in Applied Mathematics, University of California San Diego
- M.S. in Mechanics (Computational), Dalian University of Technology
- B.S. in Engineering Mechanics (Civil Engineering), Wuhan University
Employment History
- Assistant Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering, University of Minnesota, 2022-Current
- Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, San Diego State University (SDSU), 2021 Fall
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, Scientific Machine Learning in Computational Mathematics Group, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), 2019-2021
- The PhILMs ("films") Project. Collaborators: George Em Karniadakis(Brown), Panos Stinis (PNNL), Alex Tartakovsky (UIUC/PNNL), Amanda Howard (PNNL), Mauro Perego (Sandia)
- Energy Storage Materials Initiative. Collaborators: Panos Stinis (PNNL), Alex Tartakovsky (UIUC/PNNL)
- Uncertainty Quantification for Complex Systems. Collaborators: Alex Tartakovsky (UIUC/PNNL), David Barajas-Solano (PNNL)
- Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Structural Engineering, University of California San Diego, 2014-2018
Selected Honors & Awards
- NSF CAREER Award (2026)
- USACM Travel Award (2018)
- Departmental Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, University of California San Diego (2017)
- Provincial Outstanding Graduate Award, Liaoning Province, China (2013)
- Graduate National Scholarship, Ministry of Education, China (2012)
- Qian Ling-Xi Mechanics Scholarship, Dalian University of Technology (2012)
- Outstanding Student Award, Wuhan University (2009)
- National Academic Scholarship, Ministry of Education, China (2009)
Research Interests
- Finite element and meshfree methods for nonlinear solid mechanics
- Machine learning enhanced computational mechanics
- Data-driven mechanics
- Fracture mechanics
- Multiscale materials modeling
- Reduced-order modeling
- Subsurface flow and transport
- Multi-physics modeling of geological, composite and energetic materials
- Topology optimization
- Computational modeling of biomechanics & Musculoskeletal system
- Scientific machine learning for geo-mechanics & geo-sciences
- Physics-informed deep learning for inverse problems
Academic Service
Seminar Organizer:
Conference Committee Member & Organizer:
- Track chair, 2021 Mechanistic Machine Learning and Digital Twins for Computational Science, Engineering & Technology, IACM Conference, San Diego, CA, 09/2021
- Local organizing committee, Workshop on Meshfree Method and Advances in Computational Mechanics, Pleasanton, CA, 03/2019
Technical Committee and Editorial Board Membership
- Editorial Board Member, Acta Mechanica Sinica, 2025 - present
- Editorial Board Member, Computers and Geotechnics, 2022 - present
- Guest Editor, Special Issue: Machine Learning and Data-Driven Computing in Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Applications, Computers and Geotechnics, 2022
Journal Reviewers:
- Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering | Computers and Geotechnics | Engineering with Computers | Journal of Computational Physics | Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization | Water Resources Research
Grant Reviewers:
- NSF Reviewer (2023, 2025)
- External Reviewer, National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) – Fondecyt (main public fund of the Government of Chile)
Associations:
- Member of U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM), 2022-current
- Member of ASCE/EMI, 2022-current
- Member of American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2019-current
- Member of ASME, 2022-current
- Member of MRS, 2022
