Kaushik Bhattacharya

Kaushik Bhattacharya is the Howell N. Tyson, Sr. Professor of Mechanics and Materials Science and Vice Provost at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He holds a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (1986) and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota (1991). His research focuses on mechanics of materials, continuum mechanics, and active materials such as shape-memory alloys and liquid crystal elastomers. He has pioneered computational methods for material design and analysis, including coarse-grained density functional theory and machine learning-based multiscale modeling.

• Roles: Professor (since 2000), Vice Provost (2016–present), Former Executive Officer (2007–2016).
• Educations: Post-doctoral training at the Courant Institute (1991–1993).

Research interests span three core areas: (1) Active materials like ferroelectrics and shape-memory alloys, (2) Heterogeneous materials and their property design, and (3) Density functional theory for defects in solids. His work bridges theory and experiment, emphasizing material innovation for engineering applications. Recent studies include photomechanical coupling, fracture mechanics, and neural operator models for PDEs.

His awards include the Theodore von Kármán Medal (2020), Warner T. Koiter Medal (2015), and Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT Madras (2019). He served as editor of the Journal of Mechanics and Physics of Solids (2004–2015) and is recognized for teaching excellence.

Advising and grants: As a senior faculty member, he mentors graduate students in materials science and mechanics. His research has been funded by the Department of Defense and other agencies, reflected in collaborative projects on metamaterials and computational micromechanics. His lab focuses on interdisciplinary challenges, such as designing materials with tunable acoustic properties and energy conversion systems.

Labs/Teams: Leads the Mechanics and Materials Group at Caltech, collaborating with engineers, physicists, and data scientists to advance computational materials design and experimental validation.