ITC Professor wins Top Honor at the US Fiber Society Conference

Professor Xiaoming Tao, Chair Professor of Textiles Technology of the Institute of Textiles and Clothing recently received the Fiber Society Founder's Award 2013 in recognition of her outstanding achievement and commitment to the science, engineering, and technology of fibers and fiber-based products. The award was presented at the banquet of the Fiber Society Fall 2013 Conference on 24 October 2013.

Professor Tao is a distinguished scholar, internationally known for her leading research work on smart fibrous materials/structures and clothing, wearable electronics and photonics and textile manufacturing technology. In 2011, Professor Tao received Honorary Fellowship from Textile Institute, the highest individual award in the field of textiles for her consistent outstanding contributions to the advancement of science and technology.

Consistently working at the frontline of scientific research with long-term vision, creativity and persistence, Professor Tao has emerged as the leader in her areas of research. Her monographs on smart textiles and fiber-based wearable electronics were published more than ten years ago. Being the first on the topics, she received worldwide attention from fellow scholars and students of various relevant disciplines. It is reflected by the fact that these two fields of her endeavor have now become hot research areas in material science and engineering departments in most leading universities as well as textile schools around the globe. Funded by ITF in 2003, Professor Tao led a multiple disciplinary team from various departments to establish the Nanotechnology Centre for Functional and Intelligent Textile and Apparel at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Over the last some twenty years, Professor Tao has produced over 600 scientific publications, including 6 research monographs and more than 200 SCI journal papers. She has an H-index of 31 and 39 according to Web of Science and Google Scholar, respectively. The citation record qualifies her to be one of the top 1% most cited materials scientists in the world according to ISI. The popularity and visibility of her work are evident in her delivery of 83 keynote or invited presentations at international conferences, including plenary keynote presentation at the most prestigious Textile Institute Centennial World Conference.

Professor Tao has a bachelor degree in textile engineering and a PhD in textile physics. She conducted multi-disciplinary industrial research for five years in Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia before joining PolyU in 1994. This multi-disciplinary background of engineering and physics has given her not only scientific foresights but also engineering capacity to lead teams to solve real application problems in the laboratory as well as in industry. It is apparent from the fact that 9 of her 21 granted patents have been adopted by industry in real mass-scale operations. Among them, the most noticeable one is Nu-TorqueTM yarn technology developed at PolyU since 1996. Funded by RGC, ITF and PolyU as well as several international and Hong Kong companies, this technology has started from concept, to laboratory prototype then industrial technology, now evolved in five generations. It is a green technology structurally modifying yarn during manufacturing process. The current practice required to set yarn or fabrics is eliminated, the productivity increases by 20-40% and energy reduces by the same percentage. The products are strong, durable, soft and dimensionally stable, in several ways superior to those produced by conventional methods. Up to now, 11 companies in 5 countries have licensed the technology. The value of textile and clothing products from this yarns sold has been estimated to exceed 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars in the world market. The Nu-Torque technology is anticipated by leading industrialists to be adopted as a main-stream technology in a large industry of over 2 billion yarn production units.

Recognizing her international standing, Professor Tao was elected as the World President of Textile Institute from 2007 to 2010. She is also the elected Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineering and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Design and Commercial Applications, UK. Despite her busy work, Professor Tao has been a devoted and caring educator: she has produced 31 PhD graduates and supervised 22 postdoctoral fellows, many of them now have become professors and key researchers. Professor Tao was the Head of Institute of Textiles and Clothing from 2003 to 2011. During this period of time, she mentored many academic staff in their career development and guided the Institute in its endeavor to become one of the leading fashion and textile departments in the world.

About the Founder’s Award

This award recognizes outstanding contribution to the science and technology of fibrous materials by a member. The award is given to a professionally active scientist, regardless of age. It is the highest individual award offered by the Fiber Society. Each award is presented in honor of a Founding Member defined as President of the Fiber Society before 1959 (inclusive) or an Honorary Member of the Society. Professor Tao’s award was presented in honor of late Professor Stanley Backer, Professor at Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was the Honorary President of Fiber Society.