She was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University working with Professor Zhenan Bao, Wei Cai and Christian Linder. In 2014, she obtained her PhD degree in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University under the supervision of Professor Zhigang Suo. Prior to that, she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Fudan University in 2006 and 2009. Lihua studies the mechanics of soft materials. Her current research topics include mechanical instabilities of soft materials, constitutive modeling of stimuli-responsive materials, and designing of soft robots and stretchable electronics.