Christopher Yakacki PhD

Christopher Yakacki is a Professor at the University of Colorado Denver in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is on leave for the 2022-2023 academic year to serve as the President and CTO of Impressio Inc., a start-up company focused on commercializing liquid-crystal elastomer (LCE) technology, which was developed in and licensed from his laboratory. Impressio's mission is to harness the unique properties of LCE materials to transform biomedical devices, protective equipment, NVH coatings, and more.

From an academic standpoint, his goal is to develop a world-class research group as part of the Smart Materials and Biomechanics (SMAB) Lab. One theme of the SMAB Lab is to focus on the development and application of multi-functional smart materials with an emphasis on biomedical devices. He has investigated shape-memory polymers, liquid-crystalline elastomers, high-strength poly-aryl polymers, and Nickel Titanium (NiTi) for a wide range of applications ranging from soft-tissue fixation to heart valve leaflets to the treatment of degenerative disease, to ankle fusions. Another theme of the SMAB Lab is to inherently understand the biomechanics of the human body with an emphasis on how novel materials and devices can transform the current methods of treatment and injury prevention. He combines computer modeling and experimental testing to predict the performance of helmet designs as well as biomedical devices. The SMAB Lab is also led by fellow professors Dana Carpenter and Kai Yu.

Christopher's teaching focuses on materials science, design, and additive manufacturing. Courses I've taught include Introduction to Materials Science, Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Polymers: Synthesis, Physics, and Characterization, Introduction to Computer Design, and Introduction to Additive Manufacturing.