Meisha L. Shofner is a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, joining the faculty following post-doctoral training at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and her Ph.D. in Materials Science from Rice University. Prior to beginning graduate school, she was employed as a design engineer at FMC in the Subsea Engineering Division, working at two plant locations (Houston, Texas and the Republic of Singapore), and she is a registered Professional Engineer in Georgia.

Shofner’s research area is processing-structure-property relationships of polymers and composites. Specifically, she designs processing strategies to attain hierarchical structures in these materials to improve properties and has discovered scalable processing methods to produce auxetic structures and tensegrity-inspired structures. Additionally, she works with bioderived materials to produce composites with reduced environmental impact.  

Muhlstein has worked as an engineering consultant at Exponent, Inc. (Failure Analysis Associates). In September, 2002 he joined the faculty in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University and was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 2008. Muhlstein is a member of Alpha Sigma Mu and Keramos honor societies and an NSF CAREER award recipient. In 2007 he was also named the Corning Research Faculty Fellow in Materials Science and Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. 

Muhlstein’s research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of fracture and fatigue in bulk and thin film materials, including polymers, composites, metals, and ceramics. He is a Co-PI of the Composite Hybrid Materials Interfacing ( CHMI ) NSF-funded Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) and Associate Director of the Mechanical Properties Characterization Facility ( MPCF ). He currently serves as the Program Chair of the 15th International Conference on Fracture ( ICF15 ).

Education

• Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley (2002)
• M.S. in Metallurgy from the Georgia Institute of Technology (1996)
• B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley (1994)

Teaching Interests

Professor Muhlstein’s teaching interests center on undergraduate and graduate courses in materials science and engineering, with an emphasis on the mechanical behavior of materials, fracture mechanics, and materials characterization techniques. He is committed to providing students with a solid foundation in the principles governing material performance and failure, fostering analytical and experimental skills relevant to both academia and industry.

Research Interests

Professor Muhlstein’s research focuses on understanding the mechanical behavior and failure mechanisms of structural materials, including metals and ceramics. His work includes experimental and modeling approaches to characterize fracture, fatigue, and damage evolution under various environmental and loading conditions. This research aims to improve materials reliability and inform the design of advanced materials with enhanced performance in structural applications.

Hamid Garmestani is a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his education from Cornell University (Ph.D. 1989 in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics) and the University of Florida (B.S. 1982 in Mechanical Engineering, M.S. 1984 in Materials Science and Engineering). After serving a year as a post-doctoral fellow at Yale University, he joined the Mechanical Engineering Department at Florida State University (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering) in 1990. 

Primary research and teaching interests include microstructure/property relationship in textured polycrystalline materials, composites, superplastic, magnetic and thin film layered structures. He uses phenomenological and statistical mechanics models in a computational framework to investigate microstructure and texture (micro-texture) evolution during processing and predict effective properties (mechanical, transport and magnetic). His present research interests are processing of fuel cell materials and modeling of their transport and mechanical properties.

Garmestani has been the recipient of a research award (FAR) through NASA in  1997. He received the Superstar in  Research award in 1999 by FSU-CRC.  He  has also been the recipient of the Engineering Research Award at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Spring 2000. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Plasticity and board of reviewers for journal of Metal Transaction.  He is presently funded through NSF (MRD), NASA, Air Force and the Army.