Michael Frazier

Michael Frazier, a distinguished scholar, embarked on his academic journey at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego in the Fall of 2017. Prior to this, he completed a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology, where his research delved into the dynamics of materials with engineered nonlinear and multi-stable responses. His exceptional work was recognized with a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder in the Fall of 2015, supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. His groundbreaking research investigated the impact and potential functionality of vibrational wave propagation in dissipative architected materials, earning him the esteemed 2013 John A. Vise Graduate Student Excellence Award. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a testament to his dedication and passion for his field.

Sharp Minds May 6, 2024 Lecture Topic

Metamaterials: What's That?

There are many materials we use daily, and we use them for their unique properties. But we don’t often think about why the materials we use behave the way they do, making them so helpful to different tasks. The properties of materials and how they look, sound, and work are all based on small-scale processes and interactions on a microstructure level. Technology has advanced in a way that allows us to design and fabricate extremely specific microstructures that make materials behave unexpectedly and counterintuitively. This innovative technology even allows us to re-program material behavior. The Frazier Research Group aims to understand the link between the microstructural design and the resulting material performance to realize metamaterials that exhibit novel behavior and open new technological frontiers.