He announced the move on July 31, saying the opportunity to help build a new university drew him to the position.
“There are no inherent institutional constraints, allowing us to draw on the mature experience of world-renowned universities to build an education system that suits domestic development and aligns with international standards,” he said, as quoted by the South China Morning Post.
Founded last year, EIT is one of China’s newest research universities and aims to develop an internationally competitive higher education institution.
An internationally recognized researcher in interdisciplinary mechanics, Hsia is also an experienced university administrator. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and has published more than 100 research papers, with contributions spanning high-temperature deformation, micro- and nanomechanics, and biomaterials.
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Leading mechanics researcher Kuan Jimmy Hsia. Photo courtesy of NTU |
Before joining EIT, Hsia served as vice president and founding dean of NTU’s graduate college while also holding a professorship in mechanical and aerospace engineering. NTU ranked third in the QS Asia University Rankings 2026.
The appointment marks a return to China nearly five decades after Hsia began his academic career.
He entered Tsinghua University in Beijing in 1978, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1982. He later received a master’s degree from Beihang University in 1984 before moving to the U.S., where he earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990.
After completing his doctorate, Hsia joined the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as an assistant professor in 1991. He was later promoted to associate professor before becoming associate vice chancellor for research. He also served as program director at the U.S. National Science Foundation, the federal agency that funds basic research and education across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. He was eventually named the W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins Professor, one of the university’s highest faculty honors.
According to EIT, Hsia launched an interdisciplinary research initiative at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that encouraged departments to share funding and resources. Within just over a year, the program supported more than a dozen interdisciplinary teams, which secured multimillion-dollar grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
In 2015, Hsia joined Carnegie Mellon University as vice provost before moving to Singapore in 2018 to become the inaugural dean of NTU’s newly established graduate college.
During his tenure at NTU, he helped mobilize the university’s global alumni network during the Covid-19 pandemic. He also expanded international partnerships by establishing joint training programs with institutions in China, Vietnam, India, Rwanda, and countries across Europe and the Americas.
Among his recent projects at the university, Hsia led a team that developed a reusable adhesive inspired by snail mucus and gecko feet, according to The Straits Times. The technology, published in National Science Review in 2024, could be used in robotic grippers and climbing robots.
