Three new engineering physics mechanics faculty members bring unique, cutting-edge experimental approaches that produce collaborations in such varied areas as chemical, mechanical and biomedical engineering, and rheology.

Assistant Professor Robert Carpick (center) is an expert in the relatively new field of nanotribology-the study of friction, adhesion and anything that involves contacting or sliding materials at the atomic scale. Currently he is setting up an advanced scanning-probe microscropy laboratory and building customized scanning-probe instruments. He is studying the nanotribology of organic monolayers and hard thin-film coatings and, with researchers in the Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), he is investigating the mechanical properties of novel nanocomposites.

Assistant Professor Wendy Crone (left) investigates deformation and failure with experimental solid mechanics techniques to characterize and understand material behavior. In one aspect of her research, funded by a three-year grant from The Whitaker Foundation, she is analyzing the shape-memory alloy, nickel titanium (NiTi). The stents doctors insert in a patient's blood vessels to keep them from reoccluding after balloon angioplasty often are NiTi-based. Collaborating with researchers in the Center for Plasma-Aided Manufacturing, she hopes to discover methods to modify NiTi's surface to improve its biocompatibility and retain its shape-memory behavior without negatively affecting its mechanical behavior.

Much of Wisconsin Distinguished Professor Roderic Lakes' (right) research centers around the viscoelasticity of both human tissues and fabricated materials such as those used to damp out vibrations in airplane and automobile engines and computer hard drives. He has studied the viscoelasticity of bone and, with Surgery Professor Ray Vanderby, currently is examining the viscoelasticity of ligaments to determine the thresholds of injury and the effects of stretching exercises. His group also studies negative Poisson's ratio foams, which get fatter when they're stretched.

Photo by Bruce Fritz