Biography

Ahmad Raeisi Najafi is the PC Chou Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics and the director of the Multiscale Computational Mechanics and Biomechanics LAB (MCMBLAB).  He received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering (Solid Mechanics) from Shiraz University, Iran, in 1997, a M.S. and his first Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering (Biomechanics), both from the Amirkabir University of Technology in 1999 and 2006, respectively. In 2012, he joined Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) for his second Ph.D., working on the design of advanced materials and received his degree in 2016. Najafi was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the NIH Center for Macromolecular Modeling & Bioinformatics in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at UIUC from 2016 to 2017, working on computational modeling of membrane proteins structures. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (NSF CAREER) Award and the Drexel University Career Development Award. His interests are in Multiscale Computational Mechanics/Biomechanics/Biology, Design Optimization, Design of Biomimetic Materials, Mechanics of Biological Composites and Biomaterials, and Bone Fracture. He is a member of American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME), US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM), International Society for Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization (ISSOM) Biophysical Society, and American Society of Biomechanics (ASB). He currently serves as an Editorial Board Member of the Multifunctional Materials journal.

Degrees / Education

• PhD, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016
• PhD, Biomedical Engineering (Biomechanics), Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), 2006
• MSc, Biomedical Engineering (Biomechanics), Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), 1999
• BSc, Mechanical Engineering, Shiraz University, 1997

Research Areas

• Computation
• Health and Medicine
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Cyber and Physical Infrastructure
• Engineering Education
• Systems Engineering

Research Interests

Academic Distinctions

• The P.C. Chou Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, College of
  Engineering, Drexel University, 2022.
• National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (NSF
  CAREER) Award, 2022.
• Cover Article in Advanced Materials Technologies
• Panel Fellow, NSF CMMI's Game Changer Academics for Advancing Research Innovation (CGCA), 2021
• Faculty Summer Research Award, 2020
• Drexel University Career Development Award, Drexel University, 2019

Select Publications

• Black N., Raeisi Najafi A.; “Learning finite element convergence with the Multi-fidelity Graph Neural Network”, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, vol 397, 115120, 2022.
• Pejman R., Gorman J., &Raeisi Najafi A.; “Multi-physics design of a new battery packaging for electric vehicles utilizing multifunctional composites”, Composites Part B: Engineering, vol 237, 109810, 2022.
• Maghami E., Moore J. P., Josephson T. O., Raeisi Najafi A.; “Damage analysis of human cortical bone under compressive and tensile loadings”, Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, vol 25 (3), 342-357, 2022.
•  Josephson T. O., Moore J. P., Maghami E., Freeman T. A., Raeisi Najafi A.; “Computational Study of the Mechanical Influence of Lacunae and Perilacunar Zones in Cortical Bone Microcracking”, Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials,126, 105029, 2022.
• Maghami E., Josephson T. O., Moore J. P., Rezaee T., Freeman T. A., Karim L., Raeisi Najafi A.; “Fracture behavior of human cortical bone: Role of advanced glycation end-products and microstructural features”, Journal of Biomechanics, vol 125, 110600, 2021.
• Devi U., Pejman R., Zhang P., Phillips Z. J., Soghrati S., Raeisi Najafi A., Schab K. R. & Patrick J. F., “A Microvascular-Based Multifunctional and Reconfigurable Metamaterial”, Advanced Materials Technologies, 2021, 2100433 (Cover Article).
• Pejman R., Kumbur E. C., & Raeisi Najafi A.; “Multi-physics Design Optimization of Structural Battery”,Multifunctional Materials, vol. 4 (2), 024001, 2021.
• Raeisi Najafi A., Safdari M., Tortorelli D., Geubelle P.H.; “Multiscale design of nonlinear materials using a Eulerian shape optimization scheme”, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1002/nme.6650, 2021.
• Pejman R., Keshavarzzadeh V., & Raeisi Najafi A.; “Hybrid topology/shape optimization under Uncertainty for actively-cooled nature-inspired microvascular composites”, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, vol. 375, 113624, 2021.
• Maghami, E., Pejman, R., & Raeisi Najafi, A.; “Fracture resistance of human dentin microstructure: a numerical analysis”, Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, vol. 114, 104171, 2021.
• Perumal, V.I., Raeisi Najafi A., & Kontsos, A.; “A Novel Digital Design Approach for Metal Additive Manufacturing to Address Local Thermal Effects”, Designs vol. 4 (4), 41, 2020.
• Pejman R., Maghami E., & Raeisi Najafi A.; “How to design a blockage-tolerant cooling network?”,Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 181, 115916, 2020.
• Brandyberry, D., Raeisi Najafi A., Geubelle, P.; “Multiscale Design of 3D Nonlinear Composites Using an Interface-Enriched Generalized Finite Element Method”, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, vol. 121, 2806-2825, 2020.
• Pejman, R., Aboubakr, S.H., Martin, W.H., Devi, U., Tan, M.H.Y., Patrick, J.F. & Raeisi Najafi A.; “Gradient-based hybrid topology/shape optimization of bioinspired microvascular composites”, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 144, 118606, 2019. (Link to the paper video)
• Tan M.H.Y., Raeisi Najafi A., Pety, S.J., White S. R., Geubelle P.H.; “Multi-objective design of microvascular panels subject to operating constraints”, Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 135, 145-157, 2018.
• Pety, S.J., Tan M.H.Y., Raeisi Najafi A., Gendusa C.G., Barnett P.R., Sottos N. R., Geubelle P.H., White S. R.; “Design of redundant microvascular cooling networks for blockage tolerance”, Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 131, pp. 965-976, 2018.
• Raeisi Najafi A., Safdari M., Tortorelli D., Geubelle P.H.; “Shape Optimization Using a NURBS-based Interface-enriched Generalized FEM” International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, vol. 111, pp. 927-954, 2017.
• Pety, S.J., Tan M.H.Y., Raeisi Najafi A., Barnett P.R., Sottos N. R., Geubelle P.H., White S. R.; “Carbon Fiber Composites with 2D Microvascular Networks for Battery Cooling”, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 115, pp. 513-522, 2017.
• Safdari M., Raeisi Najafi A., Sottos N.R., Geubelle P.H.; “A NURBS-based Generalized Finite Element Scheme for 3D Simulation of Heterogeneous Materials”, Journal of Computational Physics, vol. 318, pp. 373-390, 2016.
• Tan M.H.Y., Raeisi Najafi A., Pety, S.J., White S. R., Geubelle P.H.; “Gradient-based Design of Actively-cooled Microvascular Composite Panels”, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 103, pp. 594-606, 2016.
• Sabet, A.F., Raeisi Najafi A., Hamed, Elham, Jasiuk, I.; “Modeling of Bone Fracture and Strength at Different Length Scales – A Review”, Journal of the Royal Society Interface Focus, vol. 6(1), 20150055, 2016.
• Zhang K., Raeisi Najafi A., Jin J.M., Geubelle P.H.; “An Interface-Enriched Generalized Finite-Element Analysis for Electromagnetic Problems with Non-Conformal Discretization” International Journal of Numerical Modeling: Electronic Networks, Devices and Fields, vol. 29 (2), pp. 265-279, 2016.
• Raeisi Najafi A., Safdari M., Tortorelli D., Geubelle P.H.; “A Gradient-based Shape Optimization Scheme Using an Interface-enriched Generalized FEM” Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, vol. 296, pp. 1-17, 2015.