Yi Min 'Mike' Xie

Yi Min 'Mike' Xie is an Honorary Professor of RMIT University in Australia. Previously, he was an RMIT Distinguished Professor (2016 – 2024) and an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow (2020 – 2024). 

He and his co-workers pioneered and established the evolutionary structural optimisation (ESO) and bi-directional evolutionary structural optimisation (BESO) methods, which are widely used by designers and researchers around the world to create many lightweight and high-performance structures and materials. His team has developed the topology optimisation software Ameba.

Professor Xie served as the Head of Civil Engineering discipline at RMIT between 2002 and 2012. From 2012 to 2024, he was the Founding Director of RMIT Centre for Innovative Structures and Materials. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) in 2011. He won the Clunies Ross Innovation Award from the ATSE in 2017 and received the AGM Michell Medal from the Institution of Engineers Australia in the same year. 

In 2019 he was recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours List and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his 'significant service to higher education, and to civil engineering'. In 2020 he was awarded the Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation by the State Government of Victoria, Australia. In 2022 he was named the Sir John Holland Civil Engineer of the Year by the Institution of Engineers Australia.

Industry experience:
Professor Xie has collaborated with a wide range of local and international companies, including Arup, Aurecon and Boeing.

Awards:

2022:

Sir John Holland Civil Engineer of the Year Award, Institution of Engineers Australia

2021:
Pioneers’ Award, Spatial Structures Research Centre, University of Surrey, United Kingdom

2020:
Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation, State Government of Victoria, Australia

2019:
Member of the Order of Australia (AM), Council for the Order of Australia

2017:
-Clunies Ross Innovation Award, Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering
-AGM Michell Medal, Institution of Engineers Australia
-Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact, RMIT University, Australia

2011:
Elected Fellow, Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering

2005:
Teaching Quality Award, RMIT University, Australia

2000:
Vice-Chancellor’s Medal for Excellence in Research, Victoria University, Australia

1999:
The Most Inspiring Lecturer in Civil Engineering Prize, Victoria University, Australia