Irene J. Beyerlein

Irene J. Beyerlein is Distinguished Professor and Mehrabian Interdisciplinary Endowed Chair of ​Mechanical Engineering and Materials at UC Santa Barbara.

Beyerlein's research focuses on the creation and design of advanced materials with unprecedented structural performance under extremes of strains, stress, and temperature. Commercially available materials typically have strength or toughness limitations and trade-offs, and the overarching research goals will seek to understand and predict how to design and make novel lightweight materials that attain strengths nearer to their theoretical limits. These materials include multi-phase microstructures or nanostructures that can be manufactured in sizes suitable for structural applications. Such advanced structural materials in bulk are critical for achieving the desired fuel economy and other critical performance metrics of a vast array of applications for our aircraft, aerospace, automotive, medical, space, energy and defense industries.

An Elected Member, National Academy of Engineering; Elected Fellow, Materials Research Society and The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society, Beyerlein received her PhD in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Cornell University.