Ryan Hayward

We work on a variety of topics inspired by the concept of materials that can change their properties on demand, clean or repair themselves, and actively interact with their surroundings. We are particularly interested in the mechanics of constrained and patterned soft polymeric materials that undergo shape instabilities in response to specific stimuli. For example, we have developed strategies by which temperature responsive gel sheets are micro-patterned to reversibly swell from flat sheets into precisely defined buckled shapes, such as the 5-node Enneper's surface and Randlett's bird shown at right. Other projects concern creasing, wrinkling, and folding instabilities of soft polymer multilayers, mechanics of supramolecular gels, and characterization of nanoscale structural heterogeneities in polymer networks