Congratulations to Assistant Professor Stavros Gaitanaros, who was recently announced as a recipient of a seed grant from Space@Hopkins!
According to its website, Space@Hopkins connects the array of Johns Hopkins University divisions, departments, and collaborative institutions in their common pursuit of civilian space research.
Gaitanaros’s project, ‘Lightweight architected materials under extreme conditions for space applications’, will focus on understanding the connection between microstructure and fracture strength in high-temperature lightweight materials that is critical in order to design the next generation of stronger materials under extreme conditions.
‘Typically, the mechanical performance of these materials is limited by their brittle nature, especially under compressive forces. Working to characterize these brittle solids under a range of temperatures will allow us to better design and synthesize stronger lattice materials.’ Gaitanaros states.
Co-PIs on the project include Prof. James Guest (Dept. of Civil Engineering) and Dr. Elizabeth Congdon (JHU Applied Physics Lab). The project is slated to seamlessly integrate in-situ characterization, computational modeling, material design, optimization techniques, and additive manufacturing.