Mao further pursued his studies in the United States, and obtained MS in 1966 and PhD in 1968 from the University of Rochester, New York.

[2][6] He takes the director role at the center and leads a group of international scientists to tackle world-class scientific challenges.

Although at the time the claim was controversial,[9] his work with Peter M. Bell is now generally accepted as being the first verified static pressure in excess of 1 Megabar.

[10][11] Mao and colleagues first calibrated ruby fluorescence pressure scale to 80 GPa and this method has been widely used in almost every diamond anvil cell experiments.

In 2018, 400 GPa was achieved by his team and a detailed description of pressure loading and distribution, gasket thickness variation, and diamond anvil deformation was reported.

[18] In 1987, Mao and a colleague at the Geophysical Laboratory, Robert Hazen, identified the composition and structure of the first high-temperature superconductor to have a critical temperature above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen.