Vanessa Restrepo, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor at the Mechanical Engineering Department 

Dr. Vanessa Restrepo is an Assistant Professor and ACES Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M.  She received her M.S. in Civil Engineering and her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, and her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Antioquia (Colombia).  Dr. Restrepo is strongly oriented to addressing research in an interdisciplinary manner. She combines principles of solid mechanics, structural analysis, and finite element methods with biology to develop, model, and test bioinspired materials. Her current research focuses on fundamentally investigate synthetic pathways for the development of bio-inspired materials and their practical applications. These proposed materials will translate into a wide variety of applications by incorporating shape-and-color shifting properties (based on shape memory materials combined with structural coloration technics) capable of autonomously changing their surface morphology and color upon the application of external stimuli such as temperature, electricity, and/or strain.

Email: vrestrepo@tamu.edu

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