Zhiyu Yang is a professor in the Physics Department, HKUST, working in the area of elastic metamaterials. He has invented the membrane type locally resonant metamaterials, based on which a series of novel structures and properties have been discovered. He is also the inventor of a variety of light weight, thin, highly efficient sound proof panels/blankets and vibration dampers for buildings, trains, ship, aircraft, factories, power plants, etc. He received the inaugural Brillouin Medal (2013) from the International Phononics Society.