People
The Mechanics of Advanced Materials group
Our group studies coupled-physics materials, wave phenomena, metamaterials, non-Hermitian mechanics, The group brings together researchers working across theory, computations, and basic experiments.
Principal investigator
Gal Shmuel
Principal Investigator
Gal Shmuel is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion. His research focuses on the mechanics of advanced materials, including soft materials, metamaterials, wave phenomena, multiphysics coupling, non-Hermitian mechanics, and effective material behavior.
He received his B.Sc. summa cum laude in Mechanical Engineering from Ben-Gurion University in 2008, his M.Sc. magna cum laude in 2009, and his Ph.D. in 2012 under the supervision of Prof. Gal deBotton. He was a postdoctoral associate at the California Institute of Technology with Prof. Kaushik Bhattacharya before joining the Technion.
Current group members
Paramveer Sharma
Ph.D. student
Research topic: Non-Hermitian elastodynamics.
In progress since 2023.
Akhil Pratap Singh
Ph.D. student
Research topic: dynamic analysis and control of soft dielectric elastomer actuators, including numerical modeling and experimental investigation.
Primary supervisor: Asst. Prof. Atul K. Sharma, IIT Jodhpur. In progress since 2021.
Interested in joining?
Prospective students and postdoctoral researchers interested in mechanics, waves, metamaterials, soft materials, non-Hermitian mechanics, or multiphysics modeling are encouraged to visit the Open positions page.
Alumni
Former graduate students
Former Ph.D. student, 2018-2024. Thesis: investigating networks of bistable hyperelastic chambers driven by viscous flow. Primary supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Amir Gat; co-advisor: Assoc. Prof. Izhar Or.
Former M.Sc. student, 2021-2024; currently officer at IDF. Thesis: third-order exceptional points and frozen modes in planar elastic laminates.
Former M.Sc. student, 2021-2023; Reamim excellence program, summa cum laude. Thesis: discrete one-dimensional models for the electromomentum coupling.
Former M.Sc. student, 2021-2023; currently officer at IDF. Thesis: oblique scattering from non-Hermitian optical waveguides.
Former M.Sc. student, 2019-2023; Reamim excellence program, Gutwirth scholarship fellow, Eli Altus excellence prize; currently officer at IDF.
Former M.Sc. student, 2019-2023; Reamim excellence program, Sherman scholarship fellow, Sandy and Beatrice Wahlberg excellence prize; currently officer at IDF.
Former M.Sc. student, 2020-2022; currently Ph.D. candidate in Civil Engineering at the Technion. Primary supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Oded Amir.
Former M.Sc. student, 2018-2020; MSc summa cum laude, Miles Rubin prize for excellent MSc thesis; currently officer in IDF.
Former M.Sc. student, 2017-2019; Brakim excellence program, MSc summa cum laude, Yehuda Moneheit excellence award, Miles Rubin excellence prize; currently officer in IDF.
Former M.Sc. student, 2015-2018; currently Senior Customer Solutions Manager at AWS.
Former M.Sc. student, 2015-2017; Brakim excellence program, MSc summa cum laude, Sandy and Beatrice Wahlberg excellence prize; currently head of mechanics in Q.ai.
Former undergraduate student; worked on the dynamic response of non-Hermitian solids.
Former B.Sc. student, now engineer at Medtronic.
Former postdoctoral scholars and long-term visitors
Former postdoctoral scholar, 2023-2026; currently Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, MITS Madanapalle, India.
Former postdoctoral scholar, 2017-2021; currently Assistant Professor at the Politecnica de Madrid.
Former postdoctoral scholar, 2019-2020; currently Assistant Professor at IIT Jodhpur.
Former postdoctoral scholar, 2020-2021; currently Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad.
Former postdoctoral scholar, 2016-2017; Lady Davis scholarship fellow; currently research associate, Fraunhofer Italia.
Former postdoctoral scholar, 2023; currently researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen.