Julia R. Greer

Professor Julia Greer is a Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics, and Medical Engineering and the Director of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech. Greer’s research focuses on creating and characterizing classes of materials with multi-scale microstructural hierarchy, which combine three-dimensional (3D) architectures with nanoscale-induced material properties. Greer has more than 150 publications (h-index 62) and has delivered over 100 invited lectures, which include 2 TEDx talks, multiple plenary lectures and named seminars at universities, including IDEAS and Watson lectures at Caltech, Gilbreth Lecture at the National Academy of Engineering, Midwest Mechanics Lecture series, and “IdeasLab” at the World Economic Forum, and was recently selected as a Cruickshank Lecturer at the Gordon Research Conferences (2020). She received the inaugural AAAFM-Heeger Award (2019) and was named a Vannevar-Bush Faculty Fellow by the US Department of Defense (2016) and CNN’s 20/20 Visionary (2016). Her work was recognized among Top-10 Breakthrough Technologies by MIT’s Technology Review (2015). Greer was named as one of “100 Most Creative People” by Fast Company and a Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum (2014) and received multiple career awards: Kavli (2014), Nano Letters, SES, and TMS (2013); NASA, ASME (2012), Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award (2012), DOE (2011), DARPA (2009), and Technology Review’s TR-35, (2008). Greer serves on the Board of Directors for Azul 3D and is an Associate Editor for Nano Letters. She is also a concert pianist.

Her participation in Phase II of Penn State’s CCI Center will revolve around nanomechanical experiments on individual nanothreads, as well as on composites that contain them, to determine mechanical properties and deformation behavior. Specific research tasks will include measuring Young’s modulus, anisotropic stiffness, tensile vs. compressive strength and response, and strain-to-failure response of nanothread conglomerates. Greer’s group will work closely with the CCI team to obtain samples in various form factors and optimize them for mechanical characterization via in-situ uniaxial deformation, as well as nanoindentation.