Carlos Portela

Carlos Portela is an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering under the School of Engineering. His research focuses on architected materials, nanomechanics (static and dynamic), and metamaterials.

• Ph.D., 2019, California Institute of Technology
• M.S., 2016, California Institute of Technology
• B.A., 2013, Physics, University of Southern California
• B.S., 2013, Aerospace Engineering, University of Southern California

Portela's work explores the design, fabrication, and testing of nano-to-macro scale materials, emphasizing advanced computational modeling and dynamic mechanical behavior. His publications highlight trends in 3D architected materials, Poisson's ratio manipulation, and underwater wave focusing applications.

• Junior Bose Award, 2024
• MIT Tech Review 35 Innovators Under 35, 2022
• NSF CAREER Award, 2022

Portela leads the Portela Research Group, which investigates energy absorption, supersonic impact resilience, and electrochemical reconfiguration of materials. His group was awarded the J-WAFS seed grant in 2023, and their work has been featured on MIT News, including projects like LIRAS (Nature, 2023) and LIPIT (PNAS, 2024). The group employs innovative fabrication and testing methodologies for static/dynamic loading scenarios.