Katia Bertoldi

Katia Bertoldi is the William and Ami Kuan Danoff Professor of Applied Mechanics at Harvard University's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She leads the Bertoldi Group: Solid Mechanics, focusing on mechanical metamaterials, multistable systems, and soft robotics. Her work integrates applied mathematics, materials science, and nonlinear dynamics to design architected materials with programmable properties.

Research interests include:

• Mechanical metamaterials with tunable properties
• Multistable structures for energy absorption and reprogrammability
• Soft robotics leveraging origami/kirigami principles
• Machine learning-driven design of complex materials

Recent work emphasizes reprogrammable systems (e.g., magnetic and thermal actuation) and textile-based metamaterials for wearable applications. Her team collaborates across disciplines, addressing challenges in biomedical devices, robotics, and sustainable manufacturing.

Key contributions include:

• Developing metafluids with programmable shell instabilities
• Designing inflatable origami actuators for meter-scale reconfigurable structures
• Creating knitted fabrics with tunable mechanical responses

Her lab explores energy-efficient actuators, adaptive fluid networks, and AI-driven material discovery, aiming to bridge theory and real-world applications.