SEM honors Notbohm with Springer/Nature Young Investigator Lecture

The Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM) selected Jacob Notbohm, Harvey D. Spangler Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to deliver the 2020 Springer/Nature Young Investigator Lecture.

This prestigious award recognizes an SEM member in early to mid-career who demonstrates considerable potential in the field of experimental mechanics.

Notbohm gave the lecture, titled “Mechanics Across Scales in Biological Materials,” during the SEM Annual Conference, which was held virtually September 14–17, 2020. His lecture focused on two topics of his research program: mechanics of collective cell migration, and mechanics of fibrous materials.

“In both topics, the physics of the full system — the cell collective or the fibrous material — result from the contributions of individual actors: cells or fibers, respectively. In both cases, the physics of the full system are far more complicated than of the individual actor,” Notbohm says. “I study these biological materials across different size scales, spanning from the individual to the group.”

Notbohm has received multiple awards, including a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2018.