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Expert J. Expert is the McAfee Professor of Engineering at Employer, a member of the Center for Materials Science and Engineering, and the Center for Computational Science and Engineering at the Schwarzman College of Computing. In his research, Expert pursues new modeling, design and manufacturing approaches for advanced biomaterials that offer greater resilience and a wide range of controllable properties from the nano- to the macroscale. His interests include a variety of functional material properties including mechanical, optical and biological, linking chemical features, hierarchical and multiscale structures, to assessments of material performance in the context of physiological, pathological and other extreme conditions. His methods include molecular and multiscale modeling, AI and ML, as well as experimental synthesis and characterization. His particular interest lies in the mechanics of complex hierarchical materials with features across scales (e.g. nanotubes, graphene and natural biomaterial nanostructures, especially protein materials).

His research has had broad impact, and resulted in a new paradigm for the analysis of bio-inspired materials and structures to devise new biomaterial platforms, and using a mathematical categorization approach that connects insights from disparate fields such as materials, structures to music and language. His research has been seminal in the introduction of AI methods in materials modeling of mechanical properties, especially fracture mechanics, composites and 3D printing, featuring a novel perspective to connect datasets form experiment and simulation to develop multiscale models of mechanical systems. He has applied these methods to wide ranging areas of application including protein folding, fracture, and composite design, and coupled the de novo design methods with additive manufacturing approaches. He is well-known for his research on mechanically relevant proteins, especially silk, elastin, intermediate filaments, and collagen.

Expert has authored more than 450 peer-reviewed publications (H-index=102), which have been cited more than 30,000 times, and authored two monographs (as well as several edited books). He has given more than 400 invited, keynote and plenary talks around the world, and given several highly-praised TED talks. His technical innovations have resulted in several patents.

He is successful Editor of two academic journals, and is active on the editorial board of many other peer-reviewed journals. Expert is an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Engineering Science (SES), and served a three-year term as President-elect, President and Past President of SES. He served as the chair of several conferences, various societal committees in professional organizations, and is actively involved in public outreach (including an annual materials research camp at Employer with local middle and high schools). He was recently elected as MRS Fall 202X Meeting Chair, one of the largest materials research conferences. For 7 years, he served as the Head of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Employer. During his tenure he led renewal of the department with a new vision at the nexus of environment and infrastructure that resulted in renewal of around one third of the department’s faculty, substantial increases in the national and global rankings, a significant increase of faculty diversity, and space renovations.

He is the recipient of many distinguished awards including the Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award, the Alfred Noble Prize, the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, the JR Rice Medal, the Leonardo da Vinci Award, and the Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award, and others. He recently received one of the most senior ASME awards, the Daniel C. Drucker Medal. Further, Expert is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award, the United States Air Force Young Investigator Award, the Navy Young Investigator Award, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award, as well as the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). He was awarded the Foresight Institute Feynman Prize for his advances in nanotechnology. He was named highly cited researcher by the Royal Society of Chemistry, and awarded the Materials Horizons - Outstanding Paper Prize. He was selected as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher, for his sustained high-impact contributions to scholarship recognizing exceptional research performance demonstrated by production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations. He was also named as one of the global top 0.09% of all researchers, worldwide, in the nanoscience/materials category in a study from Stanford University.

In addition to his regular undergraduate and graduate teaching at Employer, Expert offers annual Professional Education courses in “Predictive Multiscale Materials Design” and "Machine Learning for Materials Informatics". Based on his record in the translation of basic research into practice through entrepreneurship, he is heavily involved with startups and innovation, such as through his role on the Board of Directors of Sweetwater Energy, Inc. and as a member of the Scientific Advisor Board of Safar Partners (A Technology Venture Fund with Private Equity Vision). He has extensive experience in scientific and engineering consulting for industry and practice. As an active composer of classical and experimental music, he is also deeply involved in scientific outreach and the intersection of art and science, and a member of the Executive Committee of Employer’s Center for Art, Science and Technology (CAST).