Irene Arias

Irene Arias is a Professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and an ICREA Academia Awardee. She holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University (2003) and a BS/MS in Civil Engineering from UPC. Her postdoctoral research at Caltech focused on computational solid mechanics under Prof. Michael Ortiz.

Her research interests revolve around modeling and simulation of active materials, particularly flexoelectricity in solids. She investigates fracture mechanics in electromechanical systems, phase-field models of fracture, and ferroelectric materials. Recent work emphasizes flexoelectric effects in nanoscale materials and their applications in electromechanical transduction.

Publications span computational mechanics, metamaterials, and nanotechnology. Notable contributions include modeling surface effects in flexoelectric materials and developing topology optimization frameworks for apparent piezoelectricity. She also leads the Spanish Association of Numerical Methods in Engineering (SENI-CIMNE).