Our group is broadly interested in relating the emergent mechanical properties of plastics, elastomers, gels, soft living systems and other networked materials to the structure of their underlying constituents across scales. Our interests range from investigating how physical entanglement of polymer chains drives ultra-toughness in hydrogels to building new 3D printers from scratch to expand the design spaces of multi-material additively manufactured parts.
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Currently we are employing a combination of multiscale computational mechanics, machine learning, additive manufacturing, and mechanical testing to achieve the following research thrusts:
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Predictively mapping synthesis-structure-property relations of polymers through the development, validation, and use of ML-enabled, multiscale computational mechanics methods.
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Discovering the mechanistic origins of micro- and nanoplastic (MNP) release to inform upstream MNP mitigation strategies via material design and manufacturing.
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Inventing new multi-material additive manufacturing (MMAM) methods to advance research on multi-material interfaces, functionally graded parts, and metamaterial design.
Wagner, R. J., Lamont, S.C., White, Z.T., Vernerey, F.J. Catch bond kinetics are instrumental to cohesion of fire ant rafts under load. PNAS (2024). Link
Wagner, R. J., Dai, J., Su, X., Vernerey, F. J. A mesoscale model for the micromechanical study of gels. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids (2022). Link
Wagner, R. J., Such, K., Hobbs, E. & Vernerey, F. J. Treadmilling and dynamic protrusions in fire ant rafts. Journal of The Royal Society Interface (2021). Link
Watching things 'click' for our students is one of our greatest joys. That's why we teach at every opportunity we get. Where there are none, we try to make new ones that build up our community.
Teaching 3rd grade students about viscoelasticity and shear-thickening fluids at Dryden Elementry School.