Matthew R. Begley
Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

begley@virginia.edu

434.243-8728

1. Our group focuses on thin film mechanics, with an emphasis on establishing interdisciplinary connections between materials, performance and reliability. An emerging theme is the intersection between chemistry and mechanics.  We are currently developing microfluidic devices for bioanalysis, as well as exploring fundamental behaviors associated with chemo-mechanical coupling.
   

2. Our recent work in microfluidics has illustrated that it is possible to create elegantly simple networks that exploit dynamic coupling between a deformable thin film and a single excitation source. The end result is frequency-selective circuits that act as fluidic band-pass filters to guide flow down different channels without active valving [Nature Physics, 5, 2009]. This work is complemented by efforts to develop highly sensitive nucleic acid sensors, which exploit the extreme compliance of elastomers to convert molecular adsoprtion to large film deformations [JMPS, 53, 2005].  We also work heavily in nano-porous metals, utilizing MEMS fabrication techinques developed in our laboratory to quantify structure-property relationships [Acta Mat, 55, 2007], and explore the multifunctionality of nano-porous composites [APL, 92, 2008].
   

3. The group’s strong tradition of combining computational mechanics and multiscale materials testing provides the foundation for these efforts. We have developed a number of novel nanoindentation protocols and models to probe freestanding MEMS-type structures to extract material properties. Our previous work developing models for thin film debonding and cracking have found are broadly applicable to microelectronics, thermal barrier coatings and MEMS.
   

4. A narrative description of MRB’s interests and accomplishments, as well as full CV, is accessible on the link above. Please feel free to contact me for additional details.