Prof. Tao is Chair Professor of Textile Technology, Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University since 2002. Currently she holds the Vincent and Lily Woo Endowed Professorship in Textile Technology generously supported by the Vincent and Lily Woo Trust. She obtained a BEng in textile engineering from East China Institute of Textile Science and Technology with a 1st class prize; and a PhD in textile physics from University of New South Wales in Australia. Prof. Tao is former World President from 2007 to 2010, an elected Fellow of the Textile Institute, elected Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineering and elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Design and Commercial Applications, UK. Prof. Tao is Editor-in-Chief for Handbook of Smart Textiles by Springer and serves on Editorial Board of more than 10 key academic journals of the field.
Prof. Tao is internationally known for her leading research work on intelligent fibrous materials, nanotechnology, photonic fibres and fabrics, flexible electronic and photonic devices, yarn manufacturing and textile composites. Prof. Tao has conducted numerous research projects and published more than 800 scientific publications including over 300 international journal papers and 7 research monographs. Her published work has been cited for more than 13,000 times with H-index of 58. Prof. Tao has been invited to deliver plenary/keynote presentations in over 100 international conferences. Among more than 40 awards received by Prof. Tao, the most prestigious ones include the Honorary Fellowship of Textile Institute in 2011, the highest individual award in textiles, and Founder’s Award by Fiber Society of USA in 2013, the highest individual award in the field of fiber science and technology.
Being a great devotee of scientific discovery, Prof. Tao has led a team of prolific inventors of new technologies, with twenty eight granted international and national patents. Over ten of the invented technologies have been licensed to companies worldwide for industrial applications. One of them, Nu-torque single spun yarn technology, has been used by eleven yarn manufacturing companies around the world and produced new textile and apparel products worth over 10.5 billion Hong Kong dollars from 2005 to 2013. Licensing the new technologies developed by the group, several spin-off technology companies have been established by her past graduates in Hong Kong and China. One of these young spin-offs, AdvanPro Ltd who specializes in smart wearable technologies, a member company in Microsoft famous global innovation incubation program in 2014, has developed the world first production line for fabric sensors and received numerous awards nationally and internationally.
Prof. Tao also loves literature, opera and arts. She personally promotes the cross-fertilization of integration of science and arts through her research. The group’s photonic fabrics created by integrating science and arts together were invited to exhibit in Tokyo Museum of Future and Hong Kong Art Museum.
Prof. Tao was the Head of Institute of Textiles and Clothing from 2003 to 2011. During this period of time, she guided the Institute in its endeavor to become one of the leading fashion and textile departments in the world. She founded the Nanotechnology Centre for Functional and Intelligent Textile and Apparel. By working closely with the industry, Prof. Tao successfully led the PolyU team to win an ITF grant of over HK$330 million for hosting Hong Kong Research Centre for Textiles and Clothing, the largest single research grant that the University has ever received. As Principal Investigator, she has successfully attracted research grants over 154 million Hong Kong dollars in the last 20 years.