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Angela Pitenis

Angela Pitenis

Assistant Professor
Materials 

Contact

(805) 893-5971
3019 Materials Research Lab

University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5050

Honors

Early CAREER Award, National Science Foundation; Margaret T. Getman Service to Students Award, UCSB

Research

Bioengineering, Systems Biology, Materials & Interfaces, Energy Efficiency & Sustainability

Pitenis' research begins at the intersection of materials science, physics, chemistry, and biology, and aims to understand interfacial phenomena and energy-dissipation at the interfaces of soft materials. Her research group focuses on friction, adhesion, wear, and deformation of complex surfaces - from living cells to polymer nanocomposites. These interfacial interactions transpire over multiple length- and time-scales, often in extreme environments and within buried interfaces. Students in the group will acquire proficiency in a wide array of in situ experimental techniques (e.g., microscopy, spectroscopy, and interferometry) to access these interfaces and gain mechanistic insights into dynamically evolving material systems. The immediate impacts of these research efforts are in healthcare, energy, sustainability, and engineering design.

Education

PhD  Mechanical Engineering, University of Florida
MSc  Mechanical Engineering, University of Florida
BS   Mechanical Engineering, University of Florida