Fung was born in Jiangsu Province, China in 1919. He earned a Bachelor's degree in 1941 and a Master's degree in 1943 from the National Central University (later renamed Nanjing University in mainland China and reinstated in Taiwan), and earned a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in the United States in 1948.

Fung currently is Professor Emeritus and Research Engineer at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) .

He is the author of numerous books including Foundations of Solid Mechanics, Continuum Mechanics, and a series of books on Biomechanics.

He is also one of the principal founders of the Journal of Biomechanics .

He was a past chair of the ASME International Applied Mechanics Division.

Fung's Law

Fung's famous exponential strain constitutive equation for preconditioned soft tissues is

$w\; =\; \backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}\backslash left\; +\; c\backslash left(\; e^Q\; -1\; \backslash right)\; \backslash right$

with

$q=a\_\{ijkl\}E\_\{ij\}E\_\{kl\}\; \backslash qquad\; Q=b\_\{ijkl\}E\_\{ij\}E\_\{kl\}$

quadratic forms of Green-Lagrange strains $E\_\{ij\}$ and $a\_\{ijkl\}$, $b\_\{ijkl\}$ and $c$ material constants.

• Theodore von Karman Medal, 1976

• Otto Laporte Award, 1977

• Worcester Reed Warner Medal, 1984

• Jean-Leonard-Marie Poiseuille Award, 1986

• Timoshenko Medal, 1991

• Lissner Award for Bioengineering, from ASME

• Borelli Medal, from ASB

• Landis Award, from Microcirculation Society

• Alza Award, from BMES

• Melville Medal, 1994

• United States National Academy of Engineering Founders Award (NAE Founders Award), 1998

• National Medal of Science, 2000

• Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize , 2007 ("for the characterization and modeling of human tissue mechanics and function leading to prevention and mitigation of trauma.")

Fung was elected to the United States National Academy of Science (1993), the National Academy of Engineering (1979), the Institute of Medicine (1991), the Academia Sinica (1968), and is a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1994 election).

• Profile at UCSD

• Y.C. Fung, Mechanics of Man , Acceptance Speech for the Timoshenko Medal.

• YC Fung Young Investigator Award

• YC Fung: A Scientific Giant and a Kind Man (pdf)

• Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics: In Honor of The 90th Birthday of Professor Yuan Cheng Fung