PhD, University of Science & Technology of China (2013)

Visiting PhD student, Ulster University (2010-2011)

Postdoc, University of Maryland, College Park (2014-2016)

Research Assist Prof, University of Maryland, College Park (2016-2018)

Professor, University of Science & Technology of China (2018-)

Premixed flame instabilities, acceleration and deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT)

Blue whirl

Computational fluid dynamics and combustion modeling

Safety of hydrogen and natural gas as energy carriers

Member of International Association for Fire Safety Science (2018-present)

Member of the Combustion Institute (2016-present)

Member of International Association for Hydrogen Energy (2011-present)

Dr. Xiao’s research concentrated on flame dynamics, detonations, CFD, fire whirls, and the blue whirl. Dr. Xiao scientific accomplishments include an impressive series of high-quality publications in some of our best journals, PNAS, Combustion and Flame, the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, and Proceedings of the Combustion Institute. In particular, his research led to two new discoveries, i.e., the distorted tulip flame and the blue whirl. These are already making a significant contribution to combustion science. His work on flame dynamics, such as distorted tulip flames and their evolution, is very high-quality technical work. His work on the blue whirl and its evolution and dynamics is exciting and has the potential of a creating a new, pollution-free state of combustion.

Outstanding Contribution in Reviewing for Int J Hydrogen Energy, Elsevier, 2018

Outstanding Contribution in Reviewing for Combust Flame, Proc Combust Inst, and Fuel, Elsevier, 2017

Outstanding Student Poster: S.B. Hariharan, Huahua Xiao, E.T. Sluder, M.J. Gollner and E.S. Oran. The formation and thermal structure of the blue whirl. 12th International Association for Fire Safety Symposium. Lund, Sweden. 2017.6.

Best poster：Huahua Xiao, M. J. Gollner and E. S. Oran. Blue whirl - reacting vortex breakdown? 13th Annual Symposium of the Burgers Program for Fluid Dynamics. Maryland, USA. 2016.12.

Best PhD Thesis Award, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2014

Chinese Academy of Sciences Dean Award, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2012