NTNU Nanomechanical Lab (NML) was established on the 29th of August 2006 by Professor Zhiliang Zhang. 
Professor Jianying He became the second faculty member of NML in 2011.
NML became an independent research group at the Department of Structural Engineering in 2019. Professor Kjell Magne Mathisen became the third faculty member and the administrative leader. 

Our research activities are funded by both the Research Council of Norway and Norwegian industry partners. Currently, there are 3 full time professors, 2 adjunct professors, 17 PhD students and 3 post doc fellows working at NML. Our research focuses on both the fundamental understanding of the deformation and degradation of materials, interface mechanics, multi-physical coupling, nanoscale interaction and kinetic mechanisms, and applied nanotechnology. The chief approaches used are multiscale simulations (ab-initio calculations, molecular dynamics and finite element methods) for discovering and understanding the new mechanisms and designing new materials and surfaces with exceptional properties, and experimental methods to synthesize, characterize and test the new materials.