About Me

I received my bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and business from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994.  I then went on to earn my MS (1997) and PhD (1999) degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara.  After spending a little over a year at Harvard University as a post-doc, I then went to Rice University where I was a member of the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science faculty from 2000-2006.  I now reside in Austin, Texas as a professor in Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics.

My research focuses on continuum modeling and numerical simulation of the mechanical, electrical, magnetic and thermal behavior of materials.  My specific interests are on active/smart materials such as ferroelectrics and ferromagnetic shape memory alloys.  I also have a broad range of interests in the mechanics of materials, including fracture mechanics, plasticity, micromechanics, composites, and finite element methods.