Thomas Powers named Director of Graduate Programs for School of Engineering

Professor Thomas Powers has been named the director of graduate programs at the School of Engineering at Brown University for the 2011-12 academic year.

“Professor Powers was recommended and nominated by several of his colleagues, and I want to thank him for his service to the School of Engineering in filling this vital role,” said Larry Larson, Dean of the School of Engineering.

Professor Powers received an S.B. in physics and an S.B. in mathematics from the Massachusetts Insitute of Technology in 1989. In 1995, he received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Pennsylvania. After Penn, he held postdoctoral positions in the physics departments of Princeton University and the University of Arizona. Then, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. He joined the Division of Engineering of Brown University in 2000 as the first holder of the James R. Rice Term Chair in Solid Mechanics.

Professor Powers' research interests include molecular and cellular biomechanics, the physics of soft matter, and nonlinear dynamics. He is currently an associate editor of Reviews of Modern Physics.