Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio appointed the Lee Professor of Engineering

Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, recently named as the John J. Lee Professor of Engineering, focuses her research at the intersection of materials, manufacturing, and robotics.

Kramer-Bottiglio is developing “soft robots” that mimic the adaptive capabilities of animals. To realize this, her lab works on robots that can adapt their properties, morphology, and behavior for different tasks or environments. This requires the synthesis of new responsive materials for variable stiffness and elasticity, sensing, and actuation, which she leverages to create highly deformable, impact-resilient, and shape-shifting robots.

A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Kramer-Bottiglio earned a Ph.D. in engineering sciences from Harvard University. Following postdoctoral research at Harvard, she began her academic career as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University. In 2017, she joined the Yale faculty as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science.

Kramer-Bottiglio’s research has been supported by grants from federal agencies, including NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Office of Naval Research. She is the author or co-author of 60 peer-reviewed articles in professional journals, and holds four patents. She serves as associate editor of the journals Soft Robotics; Multifunctional Materials; Frontiers in Robotics and AI: Soft Robotics; and IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

The Yale professor is the recipient of Early Career Awards from the NSF and NASA, and Young Investigator Awards from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Office of Naval Research. In 2015, Forbes magazine named her on its “30 Under 30” list of influential individuals.