Samantha Daly PhD

Samantha Daly joined the Department as an Associate Professor July 2016. She earned her MS and PhD in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Caltech, then joined the faculty at the University of Michigan before her move to UCSB in 2016. Her interests lie at the intersection of experimental mechanics and materials science, with an emphasis on using novel methods of experimentation coupled closely with theoretical and computational modeling. She was granted the NSF’s CAREER Award, the Eshelby Mechanics Award, the Journal of Strain Analysis Young Investigator Award, the Best Paper of the Year Award from Experimental Mechanics, the Best Paper of the Year Award from IJSS, the DOE Early Career Award, the AFOSR-YIP Award, the ASME Orr Award, the Caddell Award, anda number of teaching recognitions.

Here at UCSB, Prof. Daly’s research group focuses on the statistical quantification of microstructural features of materials and their effect on meso- and macro-scale properties. Currently, the group is engaged in the development of novel methods of multi-scale material characterization, with application to active materials, high temperature ceramics, very high cycle and low cycle fatigue mechanisms, plasticity, fracture, and material behavior at the nano-scale. Most of all, she looks forward to collaborating on the statistical examination of the mechanics of hierarchical materials, and the development of new methods of experimentation in order to more fully understand how advanced materials deform and fail.