Pavana Prabhakar

Professor Pavana Prabhakar holds a joint appointment in Civil & Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, leading the Manufacturing and Mechanics Lab (MaMeL). Her research focuses on damage-tolerant composite materials for aerospace, marine, and automotive applications, emphasizing multi-physics environments (e.g., dynamic impact, extreme temperatures, moisture). She explores architected composite designs through computational and experimental methods, intersecting advanced manufacturing, materials science, and computational science.

Education: PhD 2013 (University of Michigan), MS 2008 (UC Berkeley), B.Tech 2007 (National Institute of Technology Karnataka).

Research interests include damage mechanics of architected composites, advanced manufacturing techniques, and life prediction under multi-physics conditions. Her work bridges computational modeling with experimental fabrication, aiming to develop resilient materials through innovative designs like architected syntactic foams and flexible hybrid sensors.

Recent publications highlight advancements in moisture diffusion in layered materials, woven composite fracture energy, and additive manufacturing of syntactic foams. Awards include the NSF CAREER Award (2023), ONR-YIP (2019), and Amelia Earhart Fellowship (2011).

Teaching focuses on composites, structural analysis, and research supervision. Lab activities emphasize interdisciplinary approaches to material design, leveraging AI and physics-based models for optimization.