Kim Selected for Haythornthwaite Foundation Research Initiation Grant
The grants—one of which was received by Professor Junsoo Kim—target university faculty in the beginning of their careers who are engaged in theoretical and applied mechanics research.
A proposal by Northwestern Engineering’s Junsoo Kim has been selected for a 2025 Haythornthwaite Foundation Research Initiation grant.
Kim, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, will pursue the project “Decouple Healing and Plasticity to Enhance Fatigue-Resistant of Particle-Filled Elastomers” with the $20,000 award. He will aim to identify a principle that can achieve both self-healing capacity and elasticity, such that soft materials can be made more durable.
Haythornthwaite Foundation Research Initiation grants are awarded by the applied mechanics division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Haythornthwaite Foundation. They serve university faculty in the beginning of their careers who are engaged in theoretical and applied mechanics research.
Kim is one of five researchers to be selected this year.
The ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing, and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. The Haythornwaite Foundation supports scientific research, primarily research in the field of theoretical and applied mechanics by awarding prizes and grants for advanced mechanics graduate studies.
The leader of the Soft Matter Mechanics Lab, Kim works to understand mechanics in soft materials such as gels, rubbers, and their composites, identify the theoretical limits of their mechanical properties, and design the molecular structure to approach this limit.