Professor Nanshu Lu has been named the new Carol Cockrell Curran Chair in Engineering at the Cockrell School of Engineering, a distinguished role that signifies a major endowment and a high honor within the institution.
This prestigious endowed chair is reserved for leaders in engineering who are expected to advance their field, develop significant programs, mentor junior faculty, and provide strategic guidance to their departments and the school. As a core faculty member in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Dr. Lu also holds affiliations with the Departments of Biomedical Engineering (BME), Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), Mechanical Engineering (ME), and the Texas Materials Institute (TMI). She leads an interdisciplinary research group dedicated to advancing human-robot interaction through innovative flexible and stretchable electronics. Her team has achieved notable milestones, including the development of noninvasive wearable e-tattoos for health monitoring and interactive touch-sensitive e-skins designed for safe, assistive robots akin to Baymax. Dr. Lu's groundbreaking work was highlighted in a TEDxUTAustin talk in 2023.
Dr. Lu has made substantial contributions to her field, having graduated 14 PhD and 7 MS students and currently overseeing a research team comprising 1 Research Associate, 2 Postdoctoral Researchers, and 14 PhD students from various disciplines, including ECE, ASE/EM, ME, MSE, and BME. Her group also mentors over 10 undergraduate research assistants. With 126 peer-reviewed journal articles and 28,144 citations to her name, Dr. Lu is recognized as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher and has been honored as a MIT TR35 innovator. She is also a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
