Welcome to my personal website!
I’m a Postdoctoral Research Associate from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, where I work with Prof. Glaucio H. Paulino. My research vision is to advance the design and manufacture of reconfigurable structural systems whose function (e.g., kinematic and mechanical properties) is dominated by form (e.g., geometry and topology) rather than material composition, ultimately transforming approaches to efficient and secure advanced manufacturing for the next generation. I aim to establish the geometric mechancis that enable theory-driven design, efficient simulation, reliable fabrication, and controlled actuation of reconfigurable structures and metamaterials, particularly those that are three-dimensional, irregular, and super-modular, and those inspired by origami, kirigami, and tensegrity.
News
- Sep.2025: Our review paper “Kirigami engineering: The interplay between geometry and mechanics” was published in Applied Mechanics Reviews.
- Jun.2025: I received the Future Faculty Symposium Travel Award from the 2025 SES Annual Technical Meeting.
- Apr.2025: Princeton Engineering reported our modular chiral origami metamaterials.
- Apr.2025: Nature reported our modular chiral origami metamaterials.
- Apr.2025: Nature published a video for our modular chiral origami metamaterials.
- Apr.2025: Our research article “Modular chiral origami metamaterials” was published in Nature.
- Apr.2025: Our research article “Shape and topology morphing of closed surfaces integrating origami and kirigami” was published in Science Advances.
- Jan.2025: Princeton Engineering reported our folded kirigami.
- Dec.2024: PNAS published a commentary on our folded kirigami.
- Nov.2024: Our reserach article “Folding a single high-genus surface into a repertoire of metamaterial functionalities” was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
- Apr.2024: We made the cover of Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
- Apr.2024: Our reserach article “Axisymmetric blockfold origami: a non-flat-foldable Miura variant with self-locking mechanisms and enhanced stiffness” was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
Research
1. Two-dimensional irregular reconfigurable systems
- Rigidly deployable planar kirigami structures
- Bistable spherical kirigami structures
2. Systems shifting from two-dimensional to three-dimensional configurations
- “Folded kirigami” metamaterials
- Axisymmetric origami structures
- Rigidly and flat foldable origami structures
3. Three-dimensional irregular reconfigurable systems
- Bistable closed-surface assemblies
- Modular chiral origami mechanical metamaterials
Publications
- Xiangxin Dang, Glaucio H. Paulino, Kirigami engineering: The interplay between geometry and mechanics, Applied Mechanics Reviews 77, 050801 (2025). [PDF]
- Xiangxin Dang, Shujia Chen, Ali Elias Acha, Lei Wu, Damiano Pasini, Shape and topology morphing of closed surfaces integrating origami and kirigami, Science Advances 11, eads5659 (2025). [PDF] [SI] [Movie S1] [Movie S2] [Movie S3] [Movie S4] [Movie S5]
- Tuo Zhao*, Xiangxin Dang*, Konstantinos Manos, Shixi Zang, Jyotirmoy Mandal, Minjie Chen, Glaucio H. Paulino, Modular chiral origami metamaterials, Nature 640, 931–940 (*Contributed equally) (2025). [PDF] [SI] [Movie S1] [Movie S2] [Movie S3] [Movie S4] [Movie S5] [Movie S6] [Code] [Nature News & Views] [Nature Video]
- Xiangxin Dang, Stefano Gonella, Glaucio H. Paulino, Folding a single high-genus surface into a repertoire of metamaterial functionalities, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121(46), e2413370121 (2024). [PDF] [SI] [Movie S1] [Movie S2] [Movie S3] [Movie S4] [Movie S5] [PNAS Commentary]
- Xiangxin Dang, Glaucio H. Paulino, Axisymmetric blockfold origami: a non-flat-foldable Miura variant with self-locking mechanisms and enhanced stiffness, Proceedings of the Royal Society A 480, 20230956 (2024). [PDF] [Movie S1] [Cover Image]
- Xiangxin Dang, Lu Lu, Huiling Duan, Jianxiang Wang, Deployment kinematics of axisymmetric Miura origami: Unit cells, tessellations, and stacked metamaterials, International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 232, 107615 (2022). [PDF]
- Xiangxin Dang, Fan Feng, Huiling Duan, Jianxiang Wang, Theorem on the compatibility of spherical kirigami tessellations, Physical Review Letters 128, 035501 (2022). [PDF] [SI] [Movie S1]
- Lu Lu, Xiangxin Dang, Fan Feng, Pengyu Lv, Huiling Duan, Conical Kresling origami and its applications to curvature and energy programming, Proceedings of the Royal Society A 478, 20210712 (2022). [PDF]
- Xiangxin Dang, Fan Feng, Paul Plucinsky, Richard D. James, Huiling Duan, Jianxiang Wang, Inverse design of deployable origami structures that approximate a general surface, International Journal of Solids and Structures 234–235, 111224 (2022). [PDF] [Movie S1] [Movie S2] [Movie S3] [Movie S4] [Movie S5] [Movie S6] [Movie S7]
- Xiangxin Dang, Fan Feng, Huiling Duan, Jianxiang Wang, Theorem for the design of deployable kirigami tessellations with different topologies, Physical Review E 104, 055006 (2021). [PDF]
- Fan Feng, Xiangxin Dang, Richard D. James, Paul Plucinsky, The designs and deformations of rigidly and flat-foldable quadrilateral mesh origami, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 142, 104018 (2020). [PDF]
- Xiangxin Dang, Yingjie Liu, Linjuan Wang, Jianxiang Wang, Solutions of the elastic fields in a half-plane region containing multiple inhomogeneities with the equivalent inclusion method and the applications to properties of composites, Acta Mechanica 230, 1529–1547 (2019). [PDF]
Biography
Education
- Ph.D in Solid Mechanics, Peking University, 2022
- B.Eng. in Engineering Mechanics, Peking University, 2017
Employment
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, Princeton University, 2023 - Present
- Postdoctoral Researcher, McGill University, 2022 - 2023
Awards
- Future Faculty Symposium Travel Award, SES Annual Technical Meeting (2025)
- Merit Student, Peking University (2021)
- Dean Scholarship, College of Engineering, Peking University (2021)
- Award for Scientific Research, Peking University (2019)
- Presidential Scholarship, Peking University (2018, 2017)
- Excellent Graduate, Peking University (2017)
- Award for Academic Excellence, Peking University (2016, 2015)
Contact
Email: xd7191@princeton.edu