Congratulations to Prof. Mahadevan for the 2017 James R. Rice Medal

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Society of Engineering Science Awards L. Mahadevan with their first James R. Rice Medal


(top) Predictive design method used to guide multimaterial 4D printing (bottom left) Transformed 3D shape of a human face (Gauss) and (bottom right) Image of lattice with bilayer ribs composed of four different materials of varying stiffness and thermal expansion behavior.

December 8, 2016

The James R. Rice Medal, an award creation by the Society of Engineering Science (SES) to recognize mid-career researchers between the age of 40-55. At the time of the nomination, eligible candidates must be within 10-25 years of earning their PhD or equivalent degree.

The prize is awarded each year to one mid-career researcher in the field of engineering sciences who has had a substantial impact in their field, and awarded in the form of a SES James R. Rice Medal and a monetary award of $1500. The recipient need not be a member of the Society, but becomes a lifetime member upon receipt of the medal.

L. Mahadevan, Harvard University SEAS, was awarded for his research "Fundamental contributions to the mechanics and mathematics of elastic instability, and pattern formation in engineering and biology."

Awards and named lectures include the Chaire Paris Sciences at the Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles, Paris (2001), the Chaire Condorcet at the Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris (2001), the G. I. Taylor Lectureship of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (2001), the Alan Tayler Lectureship at Oxford University (2003), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2006), and a Visiting Miller Professorship at the University of California, Berkeley (2007). He was also awarded the George Ledlie Prize at Harvard (2006) and was presented with an Ig Nobel award for the study of wrinkle patterns on sheets in 2007. Upon receipt he said, "there's no reason good science can't be fun."

Mahadevan is currently the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and a Core Member of the Wyss Institute. He is also an Affiliate Professor, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (Faculty of Arts and Sciences) and Affiliate Professor, Systems Biology (Harvard Medical School).

For more information on his research for Elasticity—Mahadevan Natural Philosophy, see his lab website.

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