Prof. Sun's major research areas are mechanics of phase transitions and constitutive theory of solids. Before joining HKUST, he was a professor of solid mechanics in Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He was a visiting professor at two French Universities (1994, 1996, 1998) and served as member of the international scientific committees for several international conferences. He was honored as the recipient of the 1995 National Natural Science Awards of China and the recipient of the 2000 Citation Classic Award by The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI).