The iMechanica Journal Club (iMech jClub)

2025 Themes and Discussion Leaders

• January, Mechanical Properties of High Entropy Alloys, Swarnava Ghosh (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
• February, TBA
• March, TBA
• April, TBA
• May, TBA
• June, TBA
• July, TBA
• August, TBA
• September, TBA
• October, TBA
• November, TBA
• December, TBA

2024 Themes and Discussion Leaders

• January, Machine Learning in Experimental Solid Mechanics: Recent Advances, Challenges, and Opportunities, Hanxun Jin (California Institute of Technology), Horacio D. Espinosa (Northwestern University)
• February, Mechanics in Solid-State Batteries: Mechanical Properties, Interfacial Failure, and Multiphysics Modeling, Juner Zhu (Northeastern University)
• March, Unveiling Spatiotemporal Deformation and Dynamics of Soft Materials at Extremely High Rates through Laser-Induced Inertial Cavitation, Jin Yang (University of Texas, Austin)
• April, The Mechanics and Mechanisms of Hydrogen Embrittlement, Emilio Martínez-Pañeda (University of Oxford)
• May, Inverse Design of Mechanical Metamaterials with Nonlinear Properties, Bolei Deng (Georgia Institute of Technology)
• June, Material strength under high dynamic pressures, Suraj Ravindran (University of Minnesota)
• July, Size-Segregation in Dense, Bidisperse Granular Materials, Harkirat Singh (California Institute of Technology), David Henann (Brown University)
• August, Full Field Observations Bring New Insight in Rubber Elasticity, Angkur Shaikeea, Vikram Deshpande (University of Cambridge)
• September, Understanding Tunable Dry Adhesion Mechanics for Robotic Manipulation, Wanliang Shan (Syracuse University)
• October, Anomalous Mechanics of Liquid Crystal Elastomers, Lihua Jin (University of California, Los Angeles)
• November, Manufacturing, Testing, and Actuation of Origami-Based Metamaterials, Diego Misseroni (Università degli Studi di Trento)
• December, Design and potential application of irregular architected materials, Ke Liu (Peking University)

2023 Themes and Discussion Leaders

• January, Design and 3D Printing of Continuous Fiber Composites: Status, Challenges, and Opportunities, Kai Yu (University of Colorado Denver)
• February, Understanding Engineering Alloy Behavior by Combining 3D X-ray Characterization and Finite Element Modeling, Darren Pagan (Pennsylvania State University), Romain Quey (École Nationale Supérieure des Mines Saint-Étienne), Matthew Kasemer (The University of Alabama)
• March, Operando characterization of additive manufacturing process using high energy synchrotron source, Atieh Moridi (Cornell University)
• April, Material Testing 2.0, Fabrice Pierron (University of Southampton)
• May, Strength Revisited: One of Three Basic Ingredients Needed for a Complete Macroscopic Theory of Fracture, Oscar Lopez-Pamies (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
• June, A perspective on the role of machine learning in constitutive modeling and computational mechanics, Nikolas Bouklas (Cornell University)
• July, A Space-Time Odyssey - Taming Exceptional Points in Elastodynamics for Sensitivity and Emissivity Enhancement and Asymmetric Wave Steering, Ramathasan Thevamaran (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• August, Attractors in stressed granular materials, Yida Zhang (University of Colorado, Boulder)
• September, Recent trends and open challenges in soft tissue biomechanics constitutive modeling, Adrian Tepole (Purdue University)
• October, Dynamic Behavior of Ceramics, Ceramic Composites, and Structures: Experimental and Computational Mechanics to Inform Advanced Manufacturing, James Hogan (University of Alberta)
• November, Top-down multi scale damage mechanics, Chloé Arson (Cornell University)
• December, Recent trends in modeling of asperity-level wear, Jean-François Molinari (EPFL)

2022 Themes and Discussion Leaders

• January, Cylindrical Origami: From Foldable Structures to Versatile Robots, Hanqing Jiang (Westlake University)
• February, Deformation Engineering of Van der Waals Materials, SungWoo Nam (University of California, Irvine)
• March, Liquid Nanofoam: Past, Present and Future, Weiyi Lu (Michigan State University)
• April, On-body Mechano-acoustics, Xiaoyue Ni (Duke University)
• May, Machine learning in mechanics: curating datasets and defining challenge problems, Emma Lejeune (Boston University)
• June, Computational mechanics for local-scale modeling of coastal hazards, Ajay B Harish (University of Manchester)
• July, Liquid crystal elastomers: programming, multifunctionality, and opportunities, Xueju "Sophie" Wang  (University of Connecticut)
• August, The route towards engineered multifunctional hair and fur, Sameh H. Tawfick (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
• September, Mechanics of soft network materials, Yihui Zhang (Tsinghua University)
• October, A Mechanical Approach to Shape, Flow, and Mechanoperception in Plants, Jean-François Louf (Auburn University)
• November, Entropy-driven mechanics of crystalline and biological membranes, Fatemeh Ahmadpoor (New Jersey Institute of Technology)
• December, Order or disorder in microstructures and microarchitectures: Which is better for mechanical performance?, Francois Barthelat (University of Colorado, Boulder)

2021 Themes and Discussion Leaders

• January, 3D Printing of Soft Materials, Qi (Kevin) Ge (Sourthern University of Science and Technology)
• February, Deformation, instability, and assembly of materials by dynamic solid-liquid interactions, Baoxing Xu (University of Virginia)
• March, Kirigami metamaterials as a robotic matter, Ahmad Rafsanjani (University of Southern Denmark)
• April, Variational phase-field modeling of brittle and cohesive fracture, Vinh Phu Nguyen (Monash University) and Jian-Ying Wu (South China University of Technology)
• May, Strong and tough hydrogels with hierarchical architectures, Ximin He (University of California, Los Angeles)
• June, Viscoelastic metamaterials, Corentin Coulais (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
• July, Computational Design of Compliant Mechanisms, Cynthia Sung (University of Pennsylvania)
• August, Electromechanics of Polyelectrolytes, Meredith Silberstein (Cornell University)
• September, Phononic materials: controlling elastic waves in solids, Kathryn Matlack (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
• October, Mechanobiology and Mechanomedicine: tuning the tension in the life, Baohua Ji (Zhejiang University)
• November, Machine Learning Potential for Atomistic Simulation, Wei Gao (University of Texas at San Antonio)
• December, Bio-Inspired 3D Printed Sutures Under Shear, Yaning Li (Northeastern University)

2020 Themes and Discussion Leaders

• January, Mechanics of Robotic Matter, Chiara Daraio (California Institute of Technology)
• February, Machine Learning in Mechanics: simple resources, examples & opportunities, Miguel A. Bessa (Delft University of Technology)
• March, Molecular Simulation-Guided and Physics-Informed Multiscale Modeling of Polymer Viscoelasticity, Ying Li (University of Connecticut)
• April, Curvature-Affected Instabilities in Membranes and Surfaces, Fan Xu (Fudan University)
• May, Correlative microscopy reveals deformation mechanisms of polycrystalline metals using AZ31 Mg alloy as a model material, Kelvin Xie (Texas A&M University)
• June, Mechanically instructive biomaterials: a synergy of mechanics, materials and biology, Jianyu Li (McGill University)
• July, Fatigue-resistant hydrogels: Principles, Experiments, and Applications, Shaoting Lin (MIT)
• August, Mechanics of High-capacity Rechargeable Batteries, Matt Pharr (Texas A&M University)
• September, The Biofilm Matrix - A Living Engineering Material, Jingjie Yeo (Cornell University)
• October, Toughening Transparent Ceramics with Bio-inspired Architectures, Zhen Yin (McGill University, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
• November, Hydrogel Ionotronics: Principles, Materials and Applications, Canhui Yang (Southern University of Science and Technology)
• December, 3D Printing of Batteries: Fabrication, Materials and Challenges, Changyong Cao (Michigan State University)

2019 Themes and Discussion Leaders

• January, Nanoprecipitation strengthening in high entropy alloys, Xiaoyan Li (Tsinghua University, China)
• February, Stretchable Chemical Templates: New Tools for the Fabrication of Polymer Microstructures and Actuators, Stephen Morin (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
• March, Fatigue of hydrogels, Ruobing Bai (California Institute of Technology)
• April, Self-healing soft materials: from theoretical modeling to additive manufacturing, Qiming Wang (University of Southern California)
• May/June, Using Instabilities to Control Soft Robots, Philipp Rothemund (University of Colorado Boulder)
• July, Cohesive strength, interfacial toughness, and their roles in the adhesion of ice, Michael Thouless (University of Michigan)
• August, Instabilities in Soft Composites, Stephan Rudykh (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• September, Hydrogel 3D printing with the capacitor edge effect, Tongqing Lu (Xi’an Jiaotong University)
• October, A Metamaterial Approach to Soft Robotics, Katia Bertoldi (Harvard University)
• November, Stretchy Electronics for Soft Robotics, Martin Kaltenbrunner (Johannes Kepler University Linz)
• December, Magnetic Soft Materials and Robots: Design (Code), Applications and Future Directions, Xuanhe Zhao (MIT)

2018 Themes and Discussion Leaders

• January, Recent advances in liquid crystal elastomers, Shengqiang Cai (University of California San Diego)
• February, HASEL artificial muscles for high-speed, electrically powered, self-healing soft robots, Christoph Keplinger (University of Colorado Boulder)
• March, Colloidal self-assembly of architected nanomaterials, Wendy Gu (Stanford University)
• April, Friction of atomically-thin sheets, Qunyang Li (Tsinghua University, China)
• May, Icephobic materials, Jianying He (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)
• June, Modeling dislocation mediated plasticity using meso-scale discrete dislocation dynamics, Ill Ryu (University of Texas at Dallas)
• July, Mechanics using quantum mechanics, Phanish Suryanarayana (Georgia Institute of Technology)
• August, X-mechanics: An endless frontier, Hongtao Wang (Zhejiang University, China)
• September, Nanomechanics of covalent crystals and elastic strain engineering, Yang Lu (City University of Hong Kong)
• October, Ruga mechanics of thin sheets: wrinkling, crumpling, and folding, Teng Zhang (Syracuse University)
• November,  Beyond piezoelectricity: Flexoelectricity in solids, Jiawang Hong (Beijing Institute of Technology, China)
• December, Bonding hydrophilic and hydrophobic soft materials for functional soft devices, Qihan Liu (Harvard University)

2017 Themes and Discussion Leaders

• January, Stress Guided Advanced 3D Microfabrication, Sheng Xu (UCSD)
• February, Nanoscale buckling in 2D materials, Yong Ni (University of Science and Technolgoy of China)
  
• March, Architected materials, Sung Hoon Kang (JHU)
  
• April, Multiscale and Multiphysics Simulation of Hydraulic Fracturing of Gas Tight Shale, Congrui Jin (SUNY Binghamton)
• May, Ionic Electrodes for Dielectric Elastomer Actuators, Michael Tolley (UCSD)
• June, 3D-printing biomimetic structures to reveal the mechanics of natural systems, Michael Porter (Clemson)
• July, Geometrically nonlinear microstructured materials for mechanical wave tailoring, Nicholas Boechler (University of Washington)
  
• August, Fracture mechanics of soft dissipative materials, Rong Long (University of Colorada, Boulder)
• September, Some recent developments in constitutive modeling of glassy polymers,Alireza Amirkhizi (UMass, Lowell)
  
• October, Multiscale modeling and simulation of active matter,Tong Gao(Michigan State University)
  
• November, In-situ mechanics experiments on battery materials, Kejie Zhao (Purdue)
• December, Mechanics of living mammalian cytoplasm, Ming Guo(MIT)

2016 Themes and Discussion Leaders

• January, Extreme Mechanics on the Surface of our Planet, Ahmed Elbanna (UIUC)
• February, Deformation Mechanics of Granular Materials: Local Deformation of Polymer-bonded Sugar at High Strain Rate Loading, Addis Kidane (University of South Carolina)
• March, When mechanics meets medicine, Shaoxing Qu (Zhejiang University)
• April, Boundary conditions in atomistic simulations for extended defects in solids, Chris Weinberg (Drexel University)
• May, Recent Progress in Curvilinear Electronics and Mechanics, Jianliang Xiao (University of Colorado at Boulder)
• June, 2D Materials:  Current and Future Directions, Harold Park (Boston University), 
• July, Nanomechanics of Large-Volume-Change Materials for Rechargeable Batteries, Shuman Xia (Georgia Tech)
• August, Frontiers in Nanocrystalline Mechanical Behavior, Tim Rupert (University of California at Irvine)
• September, Developments and challenges in miniaturized in situ experiments – Towards small-scale fracture mechanics, Daniel Kiener (University of Leoben)
• October, Roughness evolution of biomaterial surfaces, Henry Tan (University of Aberdeen)
• November, 3D Fracture Mechanics at the Atomic Scale, Erik Bitzek (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)
• December, Dynamic Fracture - when the going gets tough..., Leslie Lamberson (Drexcel University)

Past Themes and Discussion Leaders

Editors

• Ruobing Bai (2024, 2025), ru.bai@northeastern.edu
• Ryan C. Hurley (2023, 2024), rhurley6@jhu.edu

Past Editors

• Baoxing Xu (2022, 2023), bx4c@virginia.edu
• Jie Yin (2021, 2022), jyin8@ncsu.edu
• Zheng Jia (2020, 2021), zheng.jia@zju.edu.cn
• Christoph Keplinger (2019, 2020), Christoph.Keplinger@colorado.edu
• Xiaoyan Li (2018, 2019), xiaoyanlithu@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
• Shengqiang Cai (2017, 2018), s3cai@eng.ucsd.edu
• Yong Zhu (2016, 2017), yzhu7@ncsu.edu
• Teng Li (2015, 2016)
• Vicky Nguyen (2014, 2015)
• Xuanhe Zhao (2013, 2014)
• Katia Bertoldi (2012, 2013)
• Xiaodong Li (2011, 2012)
• Xi Chen (2010, 2011)
• John E. Dolbow (2009, 2010)
• Michelle L. Oyen (2008, 2009)
• Pradeep Sharma, Founding Editor (2007, 2008)

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