About Kunal
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The lab is headed by Kunal Masania (CV) and was founded in Jan 2020. Kunal obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering on the fracture mechanics of multi-scale composites from Imperial College London, UK in 2010. In 2011 he joined the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, to develop innovative manufacturing of new high-performance materials at industrial scale. In 2015 at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, he turned focus to the development of hierarchical structured materials with inspiration from the natural world using additive manufacturing. His work has been recognised by various prizes such as an ERC Consolidator Grant, MaP Career Seed Award from the ETH Foundation, and JEC Innovation Award.

Our team

Motivated to join us? 
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We continually seek talented, motivated people that are keen to be a part of our research team. A willingness to hang out near the coffee machine and/ or being left-handed is a plus! Researchers at all levels are invited by contacting us.

Post-Doctoral Researchers

Sarah Schyck

Mycelium materials
Nanoparticle functionalization
Advanced microscopy techniques

Saurav Sharma

Computational Solid Mechanics
Electromechanical Coupling
Active Metamaterials

Chintan Jansari

w/ M. Langelaar & C. Ayas (Mech)
Computational Solid Mechanics
Topology Optimisation
Additive Manufacturing of Composites

Sourav Patranabish

w/ L. Jourdin (Biotech)
Liquid Crystal Polymers
Multi-Axis Printing
Functional Materials

Shardul Bhusari

Engineered Living Materials
3D Bioprinting
Mycelium materials

Diwakar Singh

w/ B. Caglar & C. Dransfeld
Smart materials & structures
Vibration control of structures
Micro-macro analysis of composites

​Winston Lindqwister

w/ M. Lesueur, L. Rocha
Engineered living materials
Multi-scale modelling
Surrogate modelling

PhD Candidates

Muhamad Amani

w/ ​C. Dransfeld
Topology Optimization
Computer Vision
Artificial Intelligence

Satya Ammu

w/ ​C. Dransfeld
Functional materials
4D printing
3D printing piezo-electrics

Deniz Sayinbas

w/ J. Teuwen
Bio-based composites
Additive manufacturing of composites
Flax fibre-reinforced materials

Natalia Sofia Guevara-Sotelo

w/ J. Teuwen
Living composites
Biomimetic materials
Metamaterials

Zhiyuan Xu

w/ S. Teixeira de Freitas (Uni. Lisb.)
Bio-based epoxy adhesive
​Biomimetic structures
​Composites

Ingo Nettersheim

w/ J. Verdonk (WUR)
Engineered living materials
Bio-based composites
Wood additive manufacturing

Mark Ablonczy

w/ ​B. Kumru
Functional mycelium materials
Engineered wood composites
Bio-inspired material design

Christopher Lankhof

w/ ​C. Dransfeld
Shaping hydrogels
Binder jetting
Living materials

​Yaren Özüaçıksöz

w/ C. Boutry
Biodegradable electrodes
Mycelium-based materials
3D printing electronics

Jasper Groen

w/ R. Grass (ETH)
DNA-of-things
Synthetic biology
Bio-inspired materials

Swaliha Binth Hamza

w/ R. Groves
Optical properties of matter
Optical modelling
NDT methods

Mrinal Chaudhury

w/ C. Carre & C. Weimar (Airbus)
Bio-Based Composites
Eco-Design & Circularity
Aerospace Interior Materials

Alex Luijten

w/ J. Wu
Discrete Metamaterials
Hierarchical Composites
Lightweight Structures

Shanthalakshmi Kilambi

w/ B. Caglar
Physics-Informed Machine Learning
Mathematical Modelling
Artificial Intelligence

Napat Tomano

Engineering Emulsions
3D Printing Emulsion Inks
Functionalised Polymers

Gustavo Asai

w/ J.Morlier & F.Lachaud
Topology optimization
Computational mechanics
​Eco-design of composites

Jimmy Cheng

w/ J.Jovanova
Adaptive structures modelling
Bio-inspired gripper design
Embodied intelligence

Master's Students

Stefan Brunner​

Multi-axis printing
Topology optimization
Liquid crystal polymers

Derin Goulart Ulcay

Discrete metamaterials
Bio-inspired structures
Collaborative agents

Lorenzo Onorato

Liquid Crystal Polymers
Lightweight Structures
Fused Deposition Modeling

Silvan Schai

Multi-axis printing
Space Structures
Mechatronics

David Canosa Ybarra

Topology Optimization
Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites
Additive Manufacturing

Francesco Guido Vinzoni

Engineered living materials
Bio based composites
Plant cell growth

Greta Skorupska-Ruiz

Multi-axis printing
Additive manufacturing
Mechatronics

Matas Venckauskas

Bioprinting
Mycelium Materials
Engineering Design

Bachelor's Students
Elijah Downs
​
Bio-printing
Plant tissue engineering
Engineered Living Materials
Mischa Alexander Trüb
​
Metametarials
Additive Manufacturing
Anisotropy
Kimon Plaisier
​
Engineered living materials
Wood additive manufacturing
Plant tissue engineering

Alumni

Poorva Shrivastava

Kathrin Weiland

Harold Rutten

Caroline Houriet

Wouter van der Sluis

Lorenzo Impelluso

David Beaumann

Evelien Claassen

Boris Ulyanov

Sander Wildenborg

Shiyun Rahel Tremp

​Vinay Damodaran

Camille Daganaud

Nick Faber

Chiara Mascolo

Joana Kane