Scott X. Mao is the John Swanson Endowed Professor at the Swanson School of Engineering of the University of Pittsburgh. He is a specialist in the research on plasticity, deformation physics and fracture mechanics of materials, and atomic scale experimental mechanics. He is well-known for work with in-situ transmission electron microscope and is amongst the most cited in the field (over 16,500 citations, H-index=65).