Contact: mcw53@zips.uakron.edu
Hometown: Knoxville, TN
Education: B.Sc. in Materials Science and Engineering Double Major in German Language and Literature, University of Tennessee
Work Experience:10/2009-4/2010, 6/2010-8/2010, 6/2011-8/2011 Student Intern at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Mechanical properties of metal alloys, primarily high rate tensile testing using 3-D digital image correlation
5/2012-7/2012 Student Intern at University of Tennessee, Examination of phase behavior of strontium-doped cerium vanadates
Research Interests: My main research interest involves using nature as inspiration for designing new technologies. My research focuses in the area of adhesion for two systems: gecko toe-pads and caddisfly larval silk. For geckos, I study the effect of environmental factors on the gecko adhesion system, correlating the whole animal trials to experiments on the sheds of the organism. For caddisfly larva my research primarily consists of synthesizing model polymeric systems to simplify the silk in order to better develop the understanding of the natural system and apply that knowledge to synthetic technologies.