HEMI fellows Ryan Hurley and Vicky Nguyen have accepted co-Deputy Directors roles at the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute (HEMI). Together they will work with HEMI Director Tim Rupert to maintain HEMI’s strengths while broadening the impact of extreme materials research on campus through new initiatives.
Hurley is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering. His research focus includes developing and using novel experiments and numerical models to study the mechanical behavior and failure mechanisms of granular materials, rocks, concrete, and ceramics.
Nguyen is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, with a secondary appointment in the Materials Science and Engineering and Ophthalmology departments. Her research is broadly interested in studying the mechanics of stimuli-responsive and structural polymers, biomechanics of soft connective tissues, and injury biomechanics of the visual system using an integrated experimental and computational modeling approach.