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Katia Bertoldi

Faculty
  • Assistant Professor in Applied Mechanics
Katia Bertoldi

Contact Information

Office: Pierce 317
Email: bertoldi [ AT ] seas [ DOT ] harvard [ DOT ] edu
Office Phone: 617-496-3084
Lab Name: Bertoldi Group: Solid Mechanics

Websites

Education

  1. Laurea Degree, 2002, Civil Engineering, University of Trento
  2. International Masters, 2003, Structural Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology in Goteborg, Sweden
  3. Ph.D., 2006, Mechanics of Materials and Structures, University of Trento in Italy

Research Interests

    • Applied Mathematics & Computational Science
    • Modeling Physical/Biological Phenonema and Systems
    • Materials & Devices
    • Materials Science
    • Solid Mechanics

Primary Teaching Area

Materials Science & Mechanical Engineering

Profile

Katia Bertoldi’s research involves the use of continuum mechanics and applied mathematics to model the mechanical behavior of novel materials at the small scale, such as nano-composites and biological composites.

The aim of her group is to establish relationships between the internal structure of a material and its mechanical properties. The greater understanding of existing and potential discovery of new materials, especially those with improved and even ‘tunable’ properties, have direct use in many critical fields, including acoustics, optics, and electronics.

Her primary areas of interest include: continuum mechanics analyses of behavior of modern materials; buckling and instabilities; waves propagation; constitutive modeling of polymers; computational mechanics; fracture mechanics; applied mathematics; and the mechanical behavior of biological materials.

Prior to her appointment at Harvard, Bertoldi was an Assistant Professor at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. She earned a Ph.D. in Mechanics of Materials and Structures from the University of Trento in Italy; an International Masters in Structural Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology in Goteborg, Sweden; and a Laurea Degree in Civil Engineering from University of Trento.

Positions & Employment

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

  • Jan 2010-Current: Assistant Professor

  University of Twente (Netherlands)

  • June 2008–December 2009: Assistant Professor

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • March 2006–May 2008: Postdoctoral Associate, Professor Mary C. Boyce

University of Wisconsin–Madison

  • February 2005–July 2005: Visiting Researcher with Professor W. J. Drugan

Other Experience

  • Organizer (with Holger Steeb, Stefan Luding, Marc Geers and Erik van der Giessen), Workshop on Scale Transitions in Space and Time for Materials in Lorentz Center, Leiden, the Netherlands, 2009
  • Organizer (with Holger Steeb), Symposium on Acoustic Band Gaps in Micro-structured Materials at the10th U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics, 2009

Honors

  • Institute for Multiscale materials systems, University of California, Santa Barbara, Visiting Researcher Fellowship, February 2009
  • Award for outstanding presentation by younger scientists in Solid Mechanics, ICTAM 2008
  • Riken, The Japanese Center of Chemical and Physical Research, Tokyo, Japan, JISTEC-REES Fellowship, July-August 2003
  • Award for outstanding Thesis, University of Trento, Italy, 2006
  • Chalmers University of Technology (Goteborg, Sweden), Erasmus Grant, exchange student, August 1999–June 2000

Selected Publications

  1. S. Singamaneni, K. Bertoldi, S. Chang, J.H. Jang, S.L. Young, E.L. Thomas, M.C. Boyce, V.V.
    Tsukruk. “Bifurcated Mechanical Behavior of Deformed Periodic Porous Solids”. Advanced Functional materials, 19, 2009, 1426-1436.
  2. J.H. Jang, C.Y. Koh, K. Bertoldi, M.C. Boyce, E.L. Thomas. “Combining Pattern Instability and Shape-Memory Hysteresis for Phononic Switching” Nano Letters, 9, 2009, 2113-2119
  3. S. Singamaneni, K. Bertoldi, S. Chang, J.H. Jang, E.L. Thomas, M.C. Boyce, V.V. Tsukruk. “Instabilities and Pattern Transformation in Periodic, Porous Elastoplastic Solid Coatings” Applied Materials and Interfaces, 1, 2009, 42-47.
  4. S. Deschanel, B. P. Greviskes, K. Bertoldi, S. S. Sarva, W. Chen, S. L. Samuels, R. E. Cohen and
    M. C. Boyce “Rate dependent finite deformation stress-strain behavior of an ethylene methacrylic acid copolymer and an ethylene methacrylic acid butyl acrylate copolymer” Polymer, 50, 2009, 227-235.
  5. Katia Bertoldi, Mary C. Boyce “Wave Propagation and Instabilities in Monolithic and Periodically Structured Elastomeric Materials Undergoing Large Deformations” Physical Review B, 77, 2008, 184107
  6. Katia Bertoldi, Mary C. Boyce, Stephanie Deschanel, Sharon M. Prange, Tom Mullin “Mechanics of deformation-triggered pattern transformations and superelastic behavior in periodic elastomeric structures” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 2008, 56, 2642-2668.
  7. Katia Bertoldi, Davide Bigoni, Walter J. Drugan “Nacre: an orthotropic and bimodular elastic material” Composites Science and Technology, 68, 2008, 1363-1375.
  8. Katia Bertoldi, Mary C. Boyce “Mechanically-Triggered Transformations of Phononic Band Gaps in Periodic Elastomeric Structures” Physical Review B, 77, 2008. 052105
  9. Tom Mullin, Stephanie Deschanel, Katia Bertoldi, Mary C. Boyce “Pattern Transformation Triggered by Deformation” Physical Review Letters 99, 2007, 084301
  10. Katia Bertoldi, Mary C. Boyce “Mechanics of hysteretic large strain behavior of mussel byssus threads” Journal of Materials Science 42, 2007, 8943-8956.
  11. Katia Bertoldi, Davide Bigoni, Walter J. Drugan “A discrete-fibers model for bridged cracks and reinforced elliptical voids” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 55, 2007, 1016-1035.
  12. Katia Bertoldi, Davide Bigoni, Walter J. Drugan “Structural interfaces in linear elasticity. Part I: Nonlocality and gradient approximations” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 55, 2007, 1-34.
  13. Katia Bertoldi, Davide Bigoni, Walter J. Drugan “Structural interfaces in linear elasticity. Part II: Effective properties and neutrality” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 55, 2007, 35-63.
  14. Katia Bertoldi, Michele Brun, Davide Bigoni “A new boundary element technique without domain integrals for elastoplastic solids” International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 64, 2005, 877-906.

Patents Awarded

  1. Boyce, Mullin, Bertoldi, Deschanel. Materials Design for deformation triggered transformation. New provisional patent application n. 60/943 and U.S. provisional application n. 60/889
  2. Boyce, Mullin, Deschanel, Bertoldi. Pattern production and recovery by transformation. New provisional patent application n. 60/113 and U.S. provisional application n. 60/345

Faculty CV

Bertoldi-CV2.pdf — PDF document, 78 kB (80730 bytes)