Meet Us

2021-22

President: Ignacio Arretche

Ignacio has been a graduate student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since Fall 2017 where he got his MSc in Mechanical Science and Engineering and is currently pursuing a PhD. He got his BS at Buenos Aires Institute of Technology (ITBA) where he did research on the effects on internal combustion engine performance of additives for gasoline and diesel fuels. He also has two years of experience in the Argentine aerospace industry as a structural engineer for VENG S.A. His work as a researcher is mostly focused on the influences of geometry on bandgap formation of structural metamaterials.

Vice President: Jennifer Zhang

Linguistics Ph.D. student

[Biography coming soon!]

Secretary: Betsy Smith

Betsy joined the Wave Propagation and Metamaterials Lab in 2018 to pursue her M.S. in Mechanical Science and Engineering. She enjoys research work on ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation of materials and is continuing at Illinois for her Ph.D. Betsy is also a musician and novice sailor.

Treasurer: Ganesh Patil

Photo of Ganesh Patil

Ganesh is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research area is to study the sound wave propagation through architected materials over various length scale. Ganesh is an active member of the Acoustical Society of America and one of the founding members of our “Acoustics at Illinois” chapter.

Membership Director: Connor Pierce

Photo of Connor Pierce

Connor is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at UIUC, working under Dr. Katie Matlack in the Wave Propagation and Metamaterials Lab. His research focuses on developing metamaterials and metastructures with tunable wave propagation characteristics which can be controlled by magnetic fields.