Education

• Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 2016
• M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 2013
• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, 2011

Previous appointments

• Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Cambridge, Jan 2017 – Dec 2018

Research Statement

Professor Meza’s research investigates the mechanics of architected materials at micro- and nanometer length scales. In this, he studies methods for harnessing the novel properties of nanomaterials in bulk materials. He uses a range of micro- and nanofabrication techniques to create new classes of nanoarchitected materials with unprecedented mechanical properties. These include ceramics that bounce back after compression to over 50% strain and fractal-like architectures that can hierarchically tune mechanical properties at different length scales.

His work often centers around bioinspired materials, especially given that the techniques used by his group can approach and replicate the length scale and complexity of natural materials. He is interested in materials for extreme environments (irradiation, temperature, ballistic impact, etc), designing for electrical and thermal performance to make multifunctional materials, and making biocompatible materials for operation in medical devices.

Select publications

1. LR Meza, G Phlipot, CM Portela, A Maggi, LC Montemayor, A Comella, DM Kochmann, JR Greer, “Reexamining the Mechanical Property Space of 3D Lattice Architectures” Acta Materialia 140 (2017)
2. J Bauer, LR Meza, R Schwaiger, X Zheng, TA Schaedler, L Valvedit, “Nanolattice Materials: An Emerging Class of Mechanical Metamaterials” Advanced Materials 29 (Invited Progress Report) (2017)
3. LR Meza, AJ Zelhofer, N Clarke, AJ Mateos, DM Kochmann, JR Greer, “Resilient 3D Hierarchical Architected Metamaterials” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112 (2015)
4. LR Meza, S Das, JR Greer, “Strong, Lightweight, and Recoverable Three-dimensional Ceramic Nanolattices” Science 345 (2014)
5. LR Meza, JR Greer “Mechanical Characterization of Hollow Ceramic Nanolattices” J. Materials Science 49 (2014)

Honors & awards

• Featured on the cover of Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (2015)
• Robert W. Cahn Paper of the Year Award (2014)
• Featured on the cover of Nature Materials (2013)

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