Joshi
Franck Vernerey is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2006 in the field of theoretical and applied mechanics. His interests are in developing statistical mechanics approaches to understand the emerging response of network-like materials in biology and their synthetic analog. These networks span several orders of magnitude, from the molecular scale (polymers) to the micron scale (cell networks) and the macroscale (insect aggregations and entangled filaments). Although theoretical, this research has applications in the mechanical characterization of living materials, the computational design of biopolymers for regenerative medicine as well as the development of bio-inspired functional soft materials. Dr. Vernerey is the author of more than 100 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. He is also the recipient of the NSF career award in 2014 and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2017.