Haiqian Yang

During my PhD I studied multicellular self-organization with a combined computational and experimental approach, advised by Ming Guo at MIT Mechanical Engineering. I’m a Mathworks Mechanical Engineering (MIT) Fellow in 2021, 2022, and a School of Engineering (MIT) Takeda Fellow in 2024.

Since Jan 2026, I work with Markus J. Buehler and Yuan Cao on automated materials discovery with neural surrogate models.

Selected Publications

LEIA: Learned Environment for Interactive Architected Materials

Haiqian Yang, Yuan Cao, and Markus J. Buehler

2026

DOI
Nature Methods

MultiCell: geometric learning in multicellular development

Haiqian Yang, George Roy, Anh Q Nguyen, Dapeng Bi, Tomer Stern, Markus J Buehler, and Ming Guo

Nature Methods, 2026

DOI Code
arXiv

Orientational ordering in active nematic solids

Haiqian Yang, Ming Guo, and L. Mahadevan

arXiv, 2025

DOI
PRX Life

Learning collective cell migratory dynamics from a static snapshot with graph neural networks

Haiqian Yang, Florian Meyer, Shaoxun Huang, Liu Yang, Cristiana Lungu, Monilola A Olayioye, Markus J Buehler, and Ming Guo

PRX Life, 2024

DOI Code
JMPS

An interpenetrating-network theory of the cytoskeletal networks in living cells

Haiqian Yang, Thomas Henzel, Eric M Stewart, and Ming Guo

Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 2024

DOI Code
PNAS

Local response and emerging nonlinear elastic length scale in biopolymer matrices

Haiqian Yang, Estelle Berthier, Chenghai Li, Pierre Ronceray, Yu Long Han, Chase P Broedersz, Shengqiang Cai, and Ming Guo

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2023

DOI
PNAS

Configurational fingerprints of multicellular living systems

Haiqian Yang, Adrian F Pegoraro, Yulong Han, Wenhui Tang, Rohan Abeyaratne, Dapeng Bi, and Ming Guo

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021

DOI Code