Professor Vermaak earned her doctorate in Materials from the University of California Santa Barbara with Professor Anthony G. Evans. Most recently, Professor Vermaak served as a postdoctoral scholar at the Institut National Polytechnique in Grenoble, France. Her research interests include multifunctional architectured materials and structures; application of mathematical optimization techniques for the design of material composition, microstructure and structural topology; modeling thermostructural and materials degradation and durability; design and optimization of bio-inspired actuators and sensors; ultra-light weight aerospace structures; thermoacoustics; and integrated computational materials engineering.