July 3, 2025 Christian Franck named fellow of SEM Written By: Adam Malecek Departments: Mechanical Engineering Categories: Awards|Faculty Christian Franck, the H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellow and Bjorn Borgen Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been named a fellow of the Society for Experimental Mechanics. Franck, who received the honor at the 2025 SEM annual conference, was recognized for his distinguished contributions to the field of experimental mechanics and his service to the field through SEM. Franck serves as the director for the Center of Traumatic Brain Injury at UW–Madison, as the director of the multi-institutional PANTHER program, and leads his own research lab. The PANTHER program, supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, is emerging as a global leader in developing better technologies for detecting and preventing concussions and other traumatic brain injuries. His work specializes in cellular biomechanics and new experimental mechanics including unique three-dimensional full-field imaging capabilities based on multiphoton and confocal microscopy and digital volume correlation. Current application areas of these three-dimensional microscopy techniques include understanding the 3D deformation behavior of neurons in the brain during traumatic brain injuries, and the role of non-linear material deformations in soft matter. He also serves as a technical editor for the Journal of Experimental Mechanics. Read a Q&A with Franck about how blasts and impacts damage brain tissue.