An associate professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Markus J. Buehler, will receive the 2012 Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the Materials Research Society, an international organization promoting the advancement of material research in order to improve the quality of life.
The MIT professor will be honored at the MRS Awards Ceremony, which is scheduled on April 11 in the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. The award recognizes Buehler’s innovative research in computational modeling of biological, synthetic materials and demonstration of hierarchical material design that helps to turn weakness into strength. The professor will offer a presentation titled, From Atoms to Structures—Turning Weakness into Strength at the 2012 MRS Meeting on April 10.
The research work by Buehler describes the mechanical properties of biological and synthetic materials in both disease and normal physiological states using a bottom-up simulation approach. He has focused on the connection between the atomistic, macroscale and mesoscale properties and has investigated the structural changes such as genetic mutations and various other molecular defects. Thus, his research work has enabled the understanding of injury and disease mechanisms. Buehler serves MRS in several capacities, which include volunteer writer for the MRS Bulletin, judge and chair of the MRS Graduate Student Awards subcommittee, and the key organizer of a number of MRS Meeting symposia.