This book contains contributions from leading researchers in biomechanics, nanomechanics, tribology, contact mechanics, materials science and applications on various experimental techniques including atomic force microscopy (AFM) for studying soft, biomimetic and biological materials and objects. Biologists, physicists, researchers applying methods of contact mechanics and researchers testing materials using indentation techniques along with many other applied scientists will find this book a useful addition to their libraries. Moreover, several reviews in this book are written as introductions to several important and rather sophisticated research areas such as depth-sensing indentation, studying of biological cells by AFM probes, mechanics of adhesive contact and contact between viscoelastic (hereditary elastic) solids. The book containing new theoretical models, results of experimental studies and numerical simulations, along with reviews of above mentioned areas of contact mechanics in application to biological systems, would be beneficial for researchers in many areas of biology, medicine, engineering, mechanics and biomimetics.  

Xiaoqing Jin received his B.S. in Engineering Mechanics from Tongji University and M.S. in Solid Mechanics from Tsinghua University in China. Then he went to the United States to continue his pursuit of knowledge in the broad field of solid mechanics under the guidance of Prof. Leon M. Keer. In 2006, he was awarded his Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Northwestern University. After that, he worked at the same university as postdoctoral fellow and was then promoted to research associate. In 2013, he returned to China and joined Mechanical Engineering faculty of Chongqing University. The major areas of his research expertise include but are not limited to contact mechanics, fracture mechanics, micromechanics, and tribology. He was named the 2014 recipient of the Captain Alfred E. Hunt Memorial award by the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Board of Directors, for authoring the best paper dealing with the field of lubrication or an allied field. He is currently working as a professor in the College of Aerospace Engineering at Chongqing University, and has been appointed chair of the department of Engineering Mechanics since 2018.