Plenary Lectures

Subra Suresh
Ford Professor of Engineering
Division of Biological Engineering and Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Plenary Title:

Cell and Molecular Biomechanics and Human Diseases

Plenary Abstract:

Within the past decade, advances in the fields of biophysics, nanotechnology, biochemistry and genomics have provided unprecedented opportunities to manipulate and measure the mechanical deformation and adhesion of single biological cells and molecules. These advances offer unique opportunities to probe the connections between the mechanics of living cells or subcellular structures and the onset/progression of human diseases. This presentation will examine such connections in the context of three major human disease groups: infectious disease (in the context of P. falciparum malaria), pancreatic cancer, and several hereditary blood cell disorders. In each case, the discussion will focus on how cell and molecular mechanics influences or is influenced by the disease state, with a view to summarize recent advances and to highlight areas for significant further research is needed.

Biographical Information:

Subra Suresh is the Ford Professor of Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds joint faculty appointments in Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biological Engineering, and Health Sciences and Technology at MIT. He was Head of the Dept of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT from Jan. 2000 to Jan. 2006. He received his Bachelor of Technology degree in first class with distinction from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in 1977, M.S. from Iowa State University in 1979, and Sc.D. from M.I.T. in 1981. After conducting post-doctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, he joined the Solid Mechanics group at Brown University in December 1983 as Assistant Professor of Engineering and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in July 1986 and to Professor in July 1989. He joined M.I.T. in 1993 as the R. P. Simmons Professor.

Suresh has been elected to several science and engineering academies including: US National Academy of Engineering (2002), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2004), Indian National Academy of Engineering (2004; foreign member), Academy of Sciences of the Developing World, TWAS, Trieste, Italy (2005), and Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (2005; Honorary Fellow). He has served as Coordinating Editor of the international journal Acta Materialia and as a frequent consultant to industry and government. He is the Chair of the Materials Section Peer Committee and the Materials Section of the US National Academy of Engineering during 2005-2006. He has also been selected by the US National Academy of Engineering to be the American Co- Chair of the Indo-US Frontiers in Engineering Program for 2005-2008. He is the Director and lead-PI of the MIT Defense University Research Initiative on NanoTechnology Program on Nanostructured Materials, funded by the Office of Naval Research.

Suresh has contributed to the areas of fracture mechanics, tribology, friction mechanics, thin films, mechanical properties, fatigue, and mechanics of biomolecules and cells with connections to human diseases. His singular scientific contributions as well as broad research findings in several of these areas have been recognized through specific awards: the Champion H. Mathewson Gold Medal of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS) for a series of papers published during 1983-1985 which have had significant impact in the area of fatigue of materials; the Ross Coffin Purdy Award of the American Ceramic Society for the best paper published in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society (1992); selection by the Institute for Scientific Information as one of the highly cited researchers in materials science (2003); the Albert Sauveur award of the American Society of Materials International for pioneering contributions to the understanding of mechanical properties of materials (2004); the Acta Materialia Gold Medal for lifetime contributions in the area of mechanical properties of materials (2005); and selection by the Technology Review magazine in March 2006 as a researcher and one of the “pioneering group of materials scientists” for his work on single-cell biomechanics and human diseases, which was chosen as one of the top 10 emerging technologies that will “soon have a significant impact on business, medicine or culture”.

He is the author of approximately 200 research articles in international journals, coeditor of five books, and co-inventor on fourteen US and international patents. He is the sole author of the book Fatigue of Materials, first published in 1991 by Cambridge University Press. This book, with a second edition published in 1998, has remained the most authoritative and widely cited reference material on the topic for the past 15 years, and has been translated into Chinese and Japanese. His latest book, with L.B. Freund, on Thin Film Materials was published by Cambridge University Press in fall 2003. The Chinese translation of this book will be published in 2006.

Suresh’s full list of awards and honors include: selection by an international panel of judges to receive the 2006 Acta Materialia Gold Medal, election as an Honorary Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (2005), Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2004) and Associate Fellow of TWAS, the Science Academy of the Developing World, Trieste, Italy (2004), the Sauveur Achievement Award of the American Society for Materials International (2004), honorary membership in the Indian Institute of Metals (2004), the Gordon Moore Distinguished Scholarship at California Institute of Technology (2004-2006), the Brahm Prakash Professorship at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (2004), election as a Foreign Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (2003), Senior Humboldt Research Prize from the Humboldt Foundation, Germany (2004-2006), selection by the Institute for Scientific Information as a highly cited researcher in materials science (2003), Election to the US National Academy of Engineering (2002), the Distinguished Materials Scientist/Engineer Award from TMS (2001), Clark B. Millikan Visiting Professorship at Caltech (1999), the TFR Swedish National Chair in Engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (1997- 98), the Distinguished Alumnus Award (1997) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Honorary Membership of the Materials Research Society of India (1996), the Ross Coffin Purdy Award from the American Ceramic Society (1992) for the best paper published in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society, two Allied Signal Foundation Research Awards (1989, 1990), the Technical Analysis Corporation Teacher Award at Brown University “for an inspiring faculty member in the Division of Engineering” (1989), the Ford Foundation Research Award (1986-87), the Presidential Young Investigator Award (1985-90), the Champion H. Mathewson Gold Medal (1985) from TMS, the Robert Lansing Hardy Gold Medal (1983) from TMS, the Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment Award (1982) from the US Department of Energy, Premium for Academic Excellence Award (1977-79) from Iowa State University, and the National Merit Scholarship from the Government of India (1971-77). He has been elected a Fellow of a number of major professional societies including: TMS in 2000 for “pioneering contributions to the understanding of mechanical behavior of materials and for leadership in materials education” (one of only 100 living Fellows of the Society and the youngest Fellow ever at the time of election), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1996), the American Ceramic Society (1995) and the American Society for Materials International (1994).

Suresh has delivered a number of named and endowed lectures including: the Peter Winchell Lecture at Purdue University (2006), the Oersted Lecture at the Technical University of Denmark (2006), the S. S. Penner Distinguished Lecture at the University of California, San Diego (2004), the Millsaps-Taylor Memorial Lecture at University of Florida (2003), the General Electric Distinguished Lecture at RPI (2002), the R. B. Trull Distinguished Lecture in Engineering at University of Texas, Austin (2002), the Kelly Lecture at Cambridge University (2001), the Southwest Mechanics Lecture Series (1997), the Shell Distinguished Lecture at Northwestern University (1995), and the Midwest Mechanics Lecture Series (1994-95).