Faculty & Programs

The Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics has recently welcomed four new faculty members. 

Smart artificial microswimmers—small robots that resemble microorganisms like bacteria or human sperm—could potentially be used for targeted drug delivery, minimally invasive surgery, and even in fertility treatments.

These types of complicated tasks won’t be accomplished by a single microswimmer. Multiple swimmers will be necessary; however, it’s unclear how such groups will move within the chemically and mechanically complex environment of the body’s fluids. 

Six Lehigh University professors have been named Senior Members of the National Academy of Inventors. The 2025 cohort comprises 162 academic inventors representing 64 NAI Member Institutions across the United States. Collectively, they are named inventors on over 1200 U.S. patents.

Professor Ricardo H.R. Castro, chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and a highly regarded nanomaterials researcher, recently contributed to a Popular Science article exploring the materials science behind Captain America's iconic shield. The article delves into the fictional properties of vibranium and how they compare to real-world materials, with Castro, offering insights into the challenges and potential of replicating such a substance.

Professor Dan M. Frangopol, the inaugural Fazlur R. Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for his contributions to life-cycle civil engineering and leadership in its global development and adoption. Election to NAE membership is one of the highest professional honors accorded to engineers.

Hannah Dailey ’02 ’06G ’09 PhD, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics in Lehigh University’s P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, has been named a 2024 recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by the Biden administration. The award recognizes exceptional professionals in the fields of science and engineering and is the highest such honor given by the U.S. government.

Lehigh's College of Health appoints community and population health researcher, with a joint appointment in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, to new endowed chair established by gift from Ellen and Vincent Forlenza ’75

Lehigh ISE Assistant Professor Akwum Onwunta is part of a team of four faculty researchers who secured a $800K grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for their project titled “Harnessing Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for Advanced Computational Materials Modeling”.

Jonas Baltrusaitis, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Lehigh University and the inaugural editor-in-chief of Sustainability Science and Technology, will moderate a live webinar exploring per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on Wednesday, February 12, 2025, at 11 a.m. EST (4 p.m. GMT).

Rick S. Blum, the Robert W. Wieseman Endowed Professor in Electrical Engineering at Lehigh University, has been appointed as a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS) for the 2025-2026 term. In this role, Blum will present his cutting-edge research on global platforms, supported by the IEEE AESS.