 |
Pedro M. Reis Principal Investigator Full Professor Email: [email protected] Office: MED 0 1226 Phone: +41 21 693 71 18 |
Pedro Miguel Reis is a Full Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where he moved to on November 1st, 2017. His research group, the Flexible Structures Laboratory, is dedicated to the fundamental understanding of the mechanics of slender structures and their intrinsic geometric nonlinearities.
Prof. Reis received a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Manchester, UK (1999), a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Mathematics (Part III Maths) from St. John’s College and DAMTP, University of Cambridge (2000) and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Manchester (2004). He then moved as a Post-Doc at the City College of New York (2004-2005). Between 2005 and 2007 he was a CNRS Post-Doc at the ESPCI in Paris. He joined MIT in 2007 as an Instructor in Applied Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics. In 2010 he moved to MIT’s School of Engineering, with dual appointments in Mechanical Engineering and Civil & Environmental Engineering, first as the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Assistant Professor and, since the summer of 2014 as Gilbert W. Winslow Associate Professor. In October 2013, the Popular Science magazine named Prof. Reis to its 2013 “Brilliant 10” list of young stars in Science and Technology. He has also received the 2014 CAREER Award (NSF), the 2016 Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award (Applied Mechanics Division of the ASME), the 2016 GSOFT Early Career Award for Soft Matter Research (APS) and he is a Fellow of the APS.
When not playing with slender structures, Prof. Reis spends his time being silly with his twins and enjoying the Swiss Alps.
A more detailed Curriculum Vitae can be found here.
 |
Arefeh Abbasi Ph.D. Graduate Student Email: [email protected] Website: Arefeh Abbasi Office: MED 0 1626 Phone: +41 21 693 82 49 |
Arefeh Abbasi is a Ph.D. student at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where she moved to on February 15th, 2019. Arefeh got her B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (Solid Mechanics) from Shiraz University, Iran, in 2014, and her M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (Applied Design) from Shiraz University of Technology, Iran, in 2017. During her graduate study in Iran, she worked on finite element analysis of plates, shells, and smart structures. Now, her area of interest at the fleXLab focuses on the buckling of shells.
In her free time, Arefeh enjoys cooking, biking, and traveling.
 |
Fani Derveni Postdoctoral Associate Email: [email protected] Website: Fani Derveni Office: MED 0 1326 Phone: +41 21 693 38 94 |
Fani is a Post-Doc at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where she moved to on June 1st, 2021. She obtained her Diploma (5-year degree) in Civil Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (2017), and she spent six months studying at Cracow University of Technology, Poland. Fani completed her M.S. and Ph.D. studies in Structural Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, US (2019 and 2021, respectively), focusing on the mechanics of thin-walled metallic structures: from plate-lattice architected materials to cold-formed steel shear walls. At EPFL’s fleXLab, she is mainly interested in shell buckling.
When she is not in the lab, Fani enjoys traveling, running and hiking.
 |
Michael Gomez Postdoctoral Associate Email: [email protected] Website: Michael Gomez Office: MED 0 1626 Phone: +41 21 693 82 49 |
Michael is a Post-Doc at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), having joined in August 2021. He completed a BA in Mathematics at Christ Church, University of Oxford in 2013, followed by a MSc in Mathematical Modelling and Scientific Computing in 2014. Michael then moved to Pembroke College, Oxford where he completed a DPhil in Mathematics in 2018, supervised by Dominic Vella and Derek E. Moulton. He was also an awardee of the EPSRC Doctoral Prize scheme for six months based in the Mathematical Institute, Oxford. Prior to joining the fleXLab, Michael was a Research Fellow at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge between 2018-2021, where he was a member of the Biological Physics and Mechanics research group in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). Michael’s main interest is in elastic instabilities and the dynamics of slender elastic structures. His PhD research was dedicated to ‘snap-through’ instabilities; other projects he worked on in Oxford include the behaviour of spherical shells under point indentation and electrostatic ‘pull-in’ instabilities in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). More recently, Michael has studied the role played by elastic instabilities in biological contexts such as bacterial locomotion. His current research at the fleXLab focusses on developing reduced-order descriptions of slender objects (rods, plates, or shells) with complex internal structure.
In his free time, Michael enjoys walking, fantasy literature and checking how many views his cat video has on YouTube.
 |
Eduardo Gutiérrez Prieto Ph.D. Graduate Student Email: [email protected] Website: Eduardo Gutiérrez Prieto Office: MED 0 1526 Phone: +41 21 693 27 81 |
Eduardo is a Ph.D. student at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), starting from October 1st, 2021. He got his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Valladolid. He then worked for a year and a half for the company SEADM, developing a device to determine the size and count the number of nanoparticles emitted by combustion engines. He then moved to the Netherlands, to TU Delft, to pursue an M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering specializing in fluid mechanics. During his master thesis under Prof. Daniel Tam supervision, he developed a mechanical model to explain how the beating of eukaryotic cilia and flagella naturally emerges from the internal structure. His research at fleXLab focuses on the exploitation of flexible materials properties to develop tools for fluids control.
When not in the lab, Eduardo continues experimenting -but culinarily- in his kitchen, and enjoys doing any kind of outdoors sport -especially if it rains.
 |
Luna Lin Postdoctoral Associate Email: [email protected] Website: Luna Lin Office: MED 0 1526 Phone: +41 21 693 27 81 |
Luna is a Post-Doc at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), starting on November 1st, 2021. She received her B. A. in physics from Barnard College of Columbia University, in 2015. In 2021, she received her Ph. D. in applied mathematics, supervised by Prof. Chris Rycroft, from the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. During her Ph. D. studies, she modeled and developed numerical methods for a wide range of systems, including fluid—structure interactions between highly deformable solid structures and incompressible fluid, and bacterial competitions facilitated by subcellular nanostructures that directly inject toxin to kill neighboring cells. From 2016 to 2020, she was a fellow of the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship, which allowed her to research in high performance computing numerical methods at the Berkeley National Lab, supervised by Dr. Ann Almgren. She was also a graduate fellow of the Harvard Quantitative Biology Initiative from 2020 to 2021. Now at fleXLab, she is interested in using experimental approaches to investigate the functions of porous, elastic, slender structures in locomotion such as flying and swimming.
Outside of the lab, Luna enjoys being outdoors, petting animals, reading a good book, and playing ukulele.
 |
Gilad Yakir Ph.D. Graduate Student Email: [email protected] Website: Gilad Yakir Office: MED 0 1526 Phone: +41 21 693 27 81 |
Gilad is a Ph.D. student at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He received his B.Sc. in 2018 and his M.Sc. in 2022 from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He conducted his Master’s thesis at the Nonlinear and Chaotic Dynamical Systems research group under the supervision of Prof. Oded Gottlieb, where he researched the nonlinear oscillations and synchronization of a multibody mechanical system. This work included the construction of numerical and analytical models that describe the synchronized and chaotic oscillations of an inertia wheel pendula array.
In his free time, when he is not chasing his two children, Gilad enjoys the outdoors by hiking and climbing.
 |
Noelia Simone Administrative Specialist Email: [email protected] Website: Noelia Simone Office: MED 0 1726 Phone: +41 21 693 57 26 |
Noelia is the Administrative Assistant of the Flexible Structures Laboratory at EPFL. From 2016 to 2020, she also managed the administrative and finance coordination part of an H2020 European project with Prof. A. Radenovic (EPFL STI IBI-STI LBEN). In March 2020, she joined the management of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering. In 2014, and after her Commercial Business apprenticeship at EPFL (EPFL SB ISIC LCOM), Noelia received her Federal Certificate of Proficiency (CFC) in Commercial Business. In 2020, she received her Federal Diploma of Higher Education (brevet fédéral) of Executive Assistant. She also got the chance to work in the private domain, for the startup Abionic.
Apart from her varied and exciting job, Noelia loves traveling and would dream to travel around the World.
Alumni from the fleXLab
 |
Paul Johanns |
 |
Dong Yan |
|
Florian Choquart |
|
 |
Nicolas Minazzo |
 |
William Gueissaz |
 |
Samuel Poincloux |
 |
Claudio Boni |
 |
Paul Grandgeorge |
 |
Tian Chen |
 |
Tomohiko Sano |
 |
Pierre Leroy-Calatayud |
 |
Armelle Keiser |
 |
Matteo Pezzulla Postdoctoral Associate at the fleXLab, EPFL (2017-2020) Now: Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering, Aarhus University, Denmark |
 |
Changyeob Baek Visiting Ph.D. Graduate Student at the fleXLab, EPFL (2018, 2019 and 2020) Now: George Carrier Fellow in Applied Mathematics, Harvard University, Boston, US |
 |
Caroline Gay Student internship at the fleXLab, EPFL (2019) Now: Master’s student at ESPCI Paris, France |
 |
Lilian Cruveiller Student internship at the fleXLab, EPFL (2019) Now: Master’s student at Ecole Polytechnique (Palaiseau, France) |
 |
Anna Lee Postdoc at the fleXLab, EPFL (2018) Now: Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea |
 |
Benjamin Rahm Master’s Project Student at the fleXLab, EPFL (2018) |
 |
Mazen Al Achkar Master’s Project Student at the fleXLab, EPFL (2018) |
 |
Mark Guttag Postdoc at the fleXLab, EPFL (2018) Now: Exponent, Boston, US |
|
Tomohiko Sano Visiting Postdoc at the fleXLab, EPFL (2018) Now: Postdoc at the fleXLab, EPFL |
 |
Bartosz Kaczmarski Visiting Undergraduate Student at the fleXLab, EPFL (2018) Now: Undergraduate Student at Princeton University, US |
Alumni from the EGS.Lab (our former home at MIT)
|
Changyeob Baek Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2015-2020) Thesis title: “Geometry-driven Filamentary Structures: Elastic Gridshells, Weaves, Clasps, and Knots” Now: George Carrier Fellow in Applied Mathematics, Harvard University, Boston, US |
|
Mark Guttag Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2014-2017) Thesis title: “Aerodynamic Drag on Deformable and Active Structures in High Reynolds Number Conditions” Now: Exponent, Boston, US |
|
Anna Lee Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2014-2017) Thesis title: “Fabrication and Buckling of Thin Spherical Shells Containing Precise Geometric Imperfections” Now: Assistant Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea |
 |
Joel Marthelot Postdoc at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2014-2017) Visiting Graduate Student at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Spring 2010, Master 2 from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France) Now: Postdoc at the LE.Lab, Princeton University |
 |
Francisco López Jiménez Postdoc at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2013-2016) Now: Assistant Professor in Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder |
 |
Hussain Karimi Postdoc at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2015-2017) |
 |
Grace Goon M.Sc. in Aeronautics and Astronautics at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2012-2017) Now: Ph.D. student at MIT |
 |
Elizabeth (Liz) Strong M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2015-2017) Now: Ph.D. student at University of Colorado Boulder |
 |
Rashed Al-Rashed M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2015-2017) Now: Ph.D. student at MIT |
 |
Claudio Falcon Visiting Professor at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2015-2017) Now: Associate Professor in Departamento de Fisica, Faculdad de Ciencias Fisicas y Matematicas, Universidad de Chile |
 |
Latoya Oliver Administrative Assistant at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2016-2017) |
 |
M. Khalid Jawed Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2012-2016) Thesis title: “Geometrically Nonlinear Configurations in Rod-Like Structures” Now: Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles |
 |
Laelia Kim-Lan Vaulot M.Eng. in Civil & Environmental Engineering at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2015-2016) Thesis title: “Form Finding in Elastic Gridshells” Now: Graduate student at Yale University |
 |
Connor McMahan Undergraduate Student and superUROP at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2015-2016) Thesis title: “Form Finding in Elastic Gridshells” Now: Graduate student at Caltech |
 |
Rebecca Fowler Administrative Assistant at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2014-2016) |
 |
Connor Mulcahy M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2013-2015) Thesis title: “Rotation of a Slender Rod Injected into a Cylindrical Constraint” Now: Boston Scientific |
 |
Noor Khouri Undergraduate Student, UROP at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2013-2015) MIT Class of 2015 (Course 1: Civil & Environment Engineering) |
 |
Ryan McDermott Undergraduate Student, UROP at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2014-2015) MIT Class of 2015 (Course 2: Mechanical Engineering). Now: Design Engineer at Daily Thermetrics (Houston, TX) |
 |
Alice Nasto M.Sc. Student at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2011-2014) Now: Ph.D. student at MIT |
 |
Marie Rice Undergraduate Student, UROP at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2013-2014) Now: Ph.D. student at University of Michigan |
 |
Peter Dieleman Visiting Graduate Student at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2014) Now: Ph.D. student at Leiden University, Netherlands |
 |
Sharon Lacey Administrative Assistant at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2012-2014) Now: Writer at MIT’s Center for Arts, Science & Technology, MIT |
 |
Romain Lagrange Instructor in Applied Mathematics, MIT (2012-2014) Now: Researcher at CEA, France |
 |
James Miller Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2010-2013) Now: Research Scientist, Schlumberger Doll Research, Cambridge, USA |
 |
Denis Terwagne Postdoc at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2011-2013) Now: Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Université Libre de Bruxelles |
 |
Joao Lopes Sabbatical visit at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2013) Now: Structural Engineer CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) |
 |
Amy McGuire Administrative Assistant at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2011-2013) Now: Renewable Energy Project Coordinator Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources |
 |
Tianxiang Su Postdoc at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2011-2013) Now: Research Scientist, Schlumberger Doll Research, Cambridge, USA |
 |
Arnaud Lazarus Postdoc at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2010-2013) Now: Assistant Professor at the Institut Jean Le Rond d’Alembert, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France |
 |
Miha Brojan Post-doc and Fullbright Fellow at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2011-2013) Now: Lecturer at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia |
 |
Adrien Bresson Visiting Graduate Student at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Spring 2013) |
 |
Carmen Castanos Undergraduate Student, UROP at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Spring 2013) MIT Class of 2015 (Course 1: Civil and Environmental Engineering) Now: Graduate student at MIT |
 |
Matthew Santer Sabbatical visit at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2012-2013) MIT Class of 2015 (Course 1: Civil and Environmental Engineering) Now: Senior Lecturer in the Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, UK |
 |
Matt Metlitz Undergraduate Student, UROP at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2012) MIT Class of 2014 (Course 2: Mechanical Engineering) |
 |
Sarah Southerland Undergraduate Student, UROP at the EGS.Lab, MIT (2012) MIT Class of 2013 (Course 2: Mechanical Engineering and Course 4: Architecture) |
 |
Tommy Tran High-School Student Intern at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Summer 2012). Malden High School (2012), Summer Internship in partnership with Summer Search Boston and NSF |
 |
Nicolas Bravo Undergraduate Student, UROP at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Spring 2012) MIT Class of 2015 (Course 2: Mechanical Engineering) |
 |
Miho Kitagawa Undergraduate Student, UROP at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Spring 2012) MIT Class of 2014 (Course 2A: Mechanical Engineering) |
 |
Breanna Berry Undergraduate Student, UROP at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Summer, Fall 2011) MIT Class of 2012 (Course 2: Mechanical Engineering) |
 |
Bastiaan Florijn Visiting Graduate Student at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Spring 2011) Master 2 Leiden University, Netherlands |
 |
Aurelie Fargette Visiting Graduate Student at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Spring 2011) Master 1 from École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France |
 |
Jibo Wen Undergraduate Student, UROP at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Spring 2011) MIT Class of 2013 (Course 1: Civil & Environmental Engineering) |
 |
Joséphine Mannent Visiting Graduate Student at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Fall 2010) École des Mines de Paris, France |
 |
Claude Perdigou Visiting Graduate Student at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Spring 2010) Master 1 from École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France |
| Owusu Ansah Undergraduate UROP at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Spring 2010) |
|
| Trevor Shannon Undergraduate UROP at the EGS.Lab, MIT (Spring 2010) |