physics

Julia R. Greer

Julia R. Greer is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Julia R. Greer rather than just read about it. In short: Julia Rosolovsky Greer is a materials scientist and is the Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics and Medical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). As of 2019, Greer is also the director of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech.

Key takeaways

Julia R. Greer belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Julia R. Greer to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Julia R. Greer from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Julia Rosolovsky Greer is a materials scientist and is the Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics and Medical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). As of 2019, Greer is also the director of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech. As a pioneer in the field of nanomechanics and architected materials, Greer has earned many awards, such as being named a CNN 2020 Visionary, for her work investigating how materials behave at the nano-scale. Greer has been a professor at Caltech since 2007, and is also an associate editor at both Extreme Mechanics Letters and Nano Letters.

Early life and education Greer was born in Moscow, Russia, and moved to the U.S. with her parents at the age of 16. Greer attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for college, where she received a Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Advanced Music Performance in 1997. Greer then went on to receive graduate degrees in Materials Science and Engineering; she earned a Masters of Science (M.S.) in 2000 and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in 2005, both from Stanford University. Between receiving her M.S. and Ph.D., Greer worked at Intel from 2000 to 2003. For her dissertation, titled "Size dependence of strength of gold at the micron scale in the absence of strain gradients," Greer worked with materials scientist William D. Nix studying the mechanical properties of nanopillars. After her PhD, Greer pursued postdoctoral studies at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) from 2005 to 2007.

Research and career Greer joined the Materials Science Department at Caltech in 2007 as an assistant professor; she received tenure and was promoted to full professor in 2013. Her research focuses on the application of nanotechnology in biomedical materials, multi-functional devices, energy storage, and material synthesis. Greer has received much recognition and several career awards for her work. Her lab's early work has resulted in a new direction in nanomechanics. Her lab is now harnessing strategies in nanofabrication for applications ranging from improving lithium-ion batteries to developing biomedical devices.

Awards and recognition

2008 - Technology Review's Top Young Innovators Under 35 2010 - Nominee for World Technology Network’s World Technology Award in Materials 2011 - Sia Nemat-Nasser Early Career Award 2011 - DOE Early Career Research Program Award 2011 - The Materials, Metals, and Minerals Society (TMS) Young Leader Professional Development Award 2012 - Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award 2012 - NASA (inaugural) Early Career Faculty Award Archived 2017-05-22 at the Wayback Machine 2012 - Invitee to World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos 2013 - Society of Engineering Science (SES) Young Investigator Medal 2013 - The Materials, Metals, and Minerals Society (TMS) Early Career Faculty Award 2013 - Discussion Leader at and invitee to World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos 2013 - Speaker at the 2013 China-America Frontiers of Engineering Symposium 2013 - American Chemical Society (ACS) Nano Letters Young Investigator Award and Lectureship 2014 - Speaker at Google’s Solve for X Conference 2014 - Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2014 - One of “100 Most Creative People” by Fast Company Magazine 2014 - Robert W. Cahn “Best Paper Prize” by Journal of Materials Science (shared with L. Meza) 2014 - Kavli Foundation Early Career Lectureship in Materials Science Recipients by the Materials Research Society (MRS) 2015 - Speaker at the 2015 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium 2015 - Midwest Mechanics Tour Lecturer 2015 - Gilbreth Lecturer for the National Academy of Engineering 2015 - Technology Review’s Top-10 Emerging Technologies 2016 - CNN's 2020 Visionary 2016 - U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD) National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellow 2016 - U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD) Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow 2018 - Featured in Caltech's Breakthrough Campaign 2019 - AAAFM Heeger Award

Personal life In addition to being a scientist, Greer is also an accomplished pianist. She took piano lessons starting at age 5 and has studied music at several institutions, including Moscow's Gnessin School of Music, the Eastman School of Music, MIT, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Stanford University. Greer also loves rollerblading. She will occasionally rollerblade to and from work and has even participated in a rollerblading marathon.

External media and links Lecture given at the 2014 MRS Fall Meeting for receiving the Kavli Early Career Award in Nanoscience: "Three Dimensional Architected Nanostructured Meta-Materials" Talk given at TEDxCERN in 2014: "The surprising strengths of materials in the nanoworld" Talk given at TEDxManhattanBeach in 2016: "Nanotechnology: When Less is More" STEM Gems feature: "Bigger Doesn’t Always Mean Stronger: Julia Greer is Changing the Idea of How Materials Are Made" Publications by Julia R. Greer at ResearchGate Julia R. Greer publications indexed by Google Scholar Lab website

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Julia R. Greer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Julia R. Greer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Julia R. Greer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Julia R. Greer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Julia R. Greer

In research: Julia R. Greer appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Julia R. Greer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Julia R. Greer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century American women, American physicists, American women academics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Julia R. Greer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Julia R. Greer in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Julia R. Greer means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Julia R. Greer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Julia R. Greer in simple terms?

Why does Julia R. Greer matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Julia R. Greer?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Julia R. Greer.