Amir Alavi

Dr. Amir H. Alavi is an Associate Professor and B.P. America Faculty Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and holds courtesy appointments in the Department of Bioengineering and Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Alavi’s primary focus is on exploring, additive manufacturing and computational modeling of novel engineered material systems (e.g. mechanical metamaterials, nanogenerator composites). His team is dedicated to gaining a comprehensive understanding of the mechanics and electronics of these material systems across nano, micro, and macro scales. Dr. Alavi’s vision is to equip these engineered material systems with “a level of cognition” and “primitive intelligence” by seamlessly integrating advanced functionalities into their fabric. In this area, Dr. Alavi has coined the groundbreaking concept of “meta-tribomaterials” and initiated the scientific field of “mechanical metamaterial electronics (meta-mechanotronics)”, which merge mechanical metamaterials, digital electronics, and nano energy harvesting. The meta-mechanotronic systems can sense, self-power, compute, actuate, and communicate wirelessly without external power or added electronics.

Dr. Alavi is also pioneering the field of “self-powered monitoring”, where the operating power of the embedded sensing systems is directly harvested from the signal being monitored. His team is actively developing cutting-edge, self-powered sensing and monitoring technologies tailored for a wide range of structural systems, spanning from large civil infrastructure systems to minuscule medical implants. In addition, Dr. Alavi’s original and seminal contributions to developing and deploying advanced machine learning, structural optimization and bio-inspired computational techniques have established a road map for their broad applications in various engineering domains. His team is harnessing the power of the created principles and concepts in the fields of civil infrastructure, construction, aerospace, and biomedical engineering.

Dr. Alavi is the Editor-in-Chief of npj Metamaterials, a Nature Portfolio journal, and also serves as an editor for Elsevier’s Measurement and Chip journals. He is the recipient of multiple prestigious awards, including the NSF CAREER Award, the NIH Trailblazer Award, and the ASME Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering Award. He has published 8 books and has made significant contributions to the academic landscape with over 200 published works across archival journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings. His work in the field of systems engineering science is widely acknowledged by his peers, with over 23,000 citations and an h-index of 71. Dr. Alavi is among the Web of Science ESI’s World Top 1% Scientific Minds in 2018 and 2023, and has maintained his status on the Stanford University List of Top 1% Scientists in the World for five consecutive years (2019-2023). His work has been highlighted in local and national news outlets, including the Post-Gazette, NBC, ABC, CBS-affiliated television stations, and The New York Times.