Our Team
Prof. Vikram Sudhir Deshpande (FREng FRS)
Group Leader
Vikram Deshpande is an engineer who has made significant contributions in fields ranging from the design of micro-architectured materials to modelling soft and active materials. His innovations have helped define the modern frontiers of solid mechanics. Examples of his work include:
- invention of a new class of architected materials for diverse applications including lightweight structures, energy absorption and shock mitigation.
- development of theories to exploit fluid-structure interaction effects to enhance the blast resistance of land and sea vehicle.
- creation of computational tools for interrogating the high-temperature performance of alloys used in engine.
- unravelling the role of entropic forces in mechano-transduction within living cells and
- analysing the failureof solid electrolyte lithium ion batteries.
Dr Kevin Jose
Research Associate
Kevin joined the group as a Research Associate in March 2024. He is currently working on developing a robust Digital Volume Correlation protocol to enable full field 3-D strain measurement in homogeneous materials. He received his PhD from the University of Southampton in 2023 for his work on wave propagation in disordered elastic media. His research interests range from machine learning to musical acoustics.
Dr Vatsa Gandhi
Research Associate
Vatsa joined the Cambridge Solid Mechanics group in September 2023. He is currently working on characterizing the deformation of shell-based architected metamaterials using lab-based XCT, and will start as an Ashby Fellow at at the Department of Engineering from January 2024. Vatsa received his Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology, in June 2023, where he worked on shock-induced phase transformations and dynamic strength of materials
Dr. Z. Hooshmand-Ahoor
Research Associate
Zahra joined the group as a Research Associate in November 2024. She is currently working on experimental studies using XCT and X-ray diffraction methods on silicone rubbers and carbon fiber composites. She received her PhD from École Polytechnique in 2023 for her work on random composites and porous materials and later focused on magnetorheological elastomer foams. Her research interests range from random composites to finite strain modeling of materials.
Ivan Grega
PhD Student
Ivan joined the Cambridge Solid Mechanics group in September 2021. He completed the Engineering Tripos with a distinction from Pembroke College. Ivan has used both computational and experimental methods to study granular assemblies of particles. More recently, he has been using graph neural networks to predict the constitutive properties of periodic lattice metamaterials. Ivan enjoys sport, plays ice hockey for the Cambridge Blues and he is an avid glider pilot.
Dr. Hao Yin
Research Associate
Hao joined the group as a Research Associate in July 2024. He is currently working on evaluating the capability of full-field FETC measurements using machine learning, and developing numerical models to investigate size effects in architected metamaterials. He received his PhD from Northwestern University in December 2023 for his work on discrete modeling of fracture and flow in porous quasi-brittle materials. His research interests lie in computational modelling and complex lattice systems.
Dr. Ben Amir
Research Associate
Ben joined the Cambridge Solid Mechanics group in October 2024 as he received the Blavatnik Fellowship. He is currently working on the experimental development of flux-enhanced tomography for measuring the 3D strain field. His PhD from Ben Gurion University focused on dynamic mechanical properties in additively manufactured alloys, and his research at the Technion focused on fracture analysis of elastoplastic materials.
Dr. Mirac Onur Bozkurt
Research Associate
Onur joined the Cambridge Solid Mechanics group in January 2025 as a Research Associate. His current research focuses on constitutive modelling of multiphase silicon rubbers and experiments involving full-field strain measurement techniques. He earned his PhD from Imperial College London in January 2025, where he worked on data-driven homogenisation of the mechanical response of solids. Prior to that, he completed his MSc at METU with his research on experimental and numerical investigation of low-velocity impact damage in composite laminates. His research interests range from experimental characterisation to computational modelling of advanced engineering materials
Hilde Hambro
Group Administrator
Hilde started to work for the
Cambridge Solid mechanics group in 2018. She has worked for Cambridge
University since 2016. Before joining the University, she had a varied career
as a Civil Servant translator, courier, teacher, and shop worker. She has a can-do
attitude and can turn her hands to anything and everything. A native of Norway she is interested in wool, and she has mastered
how to live in both England and Scotland.