Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao works in ultra-high pressure physics, chemistry, material sciences, geophysics, geochemistry, and planetary sciences using the diamond-anvil cell.

Mao received his B.S. in Geology (1963) from the National Taiwan University, and M.S. (1966) and Ph.D. (1968) from the University of Rochester, where he conducted high-pressure deep Earth research under the guidance of Professors Bill Bassett and Taro Takahashi. He started as a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. Peter M. Bell at the Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, and later became a Staff Geophysicist there ever since. During the past four decades, he has pioneered the development of high-pressure diamond-anvil cell techniques and a wide range of synchrotron x-ray, neutron, optical, electrical, and magnetic probes for in-situ diagnosis of samples under extreme pressures and temperatures. His research interests covers high pressure condensed-matter physics, high pressure chemistry, high pressure crystallography, chemistry of the Earth’s mantle and core, deep Earth geophysics, physics and chemistry of giant planetary interiors, and high pressure materials science.