Michael Ortiz

Michael Ortiz is the Dotty and Dick Hayman Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He holds the Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship at the Technical University of Munich's Institute for Advanced Study (TUM-IAS) since 2010. His research focuses on developing the Advanced Cardiac Mechanics Emulator (ACME) to model human heart function in healthy and diseased states. He has a BS from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, and MS/PhD from UC Berkeley. Previously, he was at Brown University (1984–1995).

Professor Ortiz leads Caltech’s DoE/PSAAP Center on High-Energy Density Dynamics of Materials. His honors include the IUTAM Rodney Hill Prize (2008), election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2007), and Humboldt Research Award (2002). He has advised national labs like Lawrence Livermore and Sandia on predictive science and engineering review panels.

His work spans computational mechanics, materials science, and multiscale modeling. Recent research emphasizes cardiac biomechanics, fracture mechanics, and quantum materials simulations. Over 100 highly cited papers showcase contributions to meshfree methods, variational fracture, and orbital-free DFT.