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Ellen Arruda elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering

Election to National Academy of Engineering membership is one of the highest professional honors accorded an engineer.

Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Professor Ellen Arruda, has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Election to National Academy of Engineering membership is one of the highest professional honors accorded an engineer. Members have distinguished themselves in business or academic management, in technical positions, as university faculty, or as leaders in government or private engineering organizations. Only 2,530 individuals worldwide are NAE members, including 106 in this year’s class.

A professor of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Professor Ellen Arruda was cited for “pioneering research in polymer and tissue mechanics and their application in innovative commercial products.” She joined the College’s faculty as an assistant professor in 1992. She earned her bachelor’s degree (with Honors) and master’s degree both from Penn State, and her Ph.D. from MIT.

Professor Arruda teaches and conducts research in the areas of theoretical and experimental mechanics of macromolecular materials, including polymers, elastomers, composites, soft tissues and proteins, and in tissue engineering of soft tissues and tissue interfaces.

Her research programs include the experimental characterization, and analytical and computational modeling of soft materials, including native and engineered tissues. Her distinctions include the 2012 Excellence in Research Award by the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, and the cover article in Tissue Engineering, in January of 2012. She holds three patents for this work. She is president and a fellow of the American Academy of Mechanics and a fellow and former president of the Society of Engineering Science.