Prof. Zhang Tong-Yi received his PhD from the University of Science and Technology, Beijing, in 1985. After graduation, he worked as a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at Göttingen University in Germany from 1986 to 1988, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Rochester from 1988 to 1990. He was an associate research scientist at Yale University from 1990 to 1993. Before retiring from HKUST in 2015, he was Fang Professor of Engineering of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Prof. Zhang's research centers on the fracture of piezoelectric ceramics and the mechanical properties of nanomaterials. Piezoelectric materials are polarized materials that produce an electric field with an imposed mechanical force, and vice versa. They are widely used in sensors, actuators, capacitors and microelectric devices. Prof. Zhang has established the fracture mechanic basis for piezoelectric materials by studying the relationship between both mechanical and electrical-fracture toughness. He has also further applied concepts from fracture mechanics to understand electrically induced failures, providing useful criteria for the design of electronic and electromechanical devices.

Prof. Zhang won the State Natural Science Award (second-class) in 1987, the most prestigious award in the field of natural sciences in China, and was presented the National Award for Young Scientists by the China Association for Science and Technology in 1988. He was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Materials International in 2001. In 2003, he was awarded the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship Award, and was elected to be a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011. An expert in materials science and solid mechanics, Prof. Zhang has published more than 100 papers in leading academic journals and co-holds two US patents.