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CLMI Research Group

The research of our laboratory is supported by a group of talented and dedicated graduate and undergraduate students. We are always looking for highly-motivated students who are interested in computational modeling, damage and fracture of materials, and structural mechanics. Please contact Tim Truster directly and also consider open posting on the announcements page.


Current Team Members


Dr. Shank Kulkarni

Research Associate III

Previous Degrees

  • BS, Civil Engineering, Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune, India, 2010
  • MS, Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, India, 2013
  • PhD, Mechanical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2019

Previous Employment

  • Postdoc Research Associate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, WA, USA, 2019-2021
  • Computational Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, WA, USA, 2021-2022


Amirfarzad Behnam

Degree Program: Doctoral (Anticipated August 2023)
Previous Degrees

  • BS, Civil Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), 2009
  • MS, Civil-Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Institute, Building and Housing Research Center (BHRC), Tehran, Iran, 2011
  • PhD, Structural Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran, 2017
  • MS, Civil Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, 2020


John Fritz

Degree Program: Doctoral (Anticipated December 2023)
Previous Degrees

  • BS, Civil Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna, Bangladesh, 2009
  • MS in Engineering, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, Arkansas, 2020


Ibrahim Adediran

Degree Program: Master (Anticipated May 2023) and Doctoral (Anticipated May 2025)
Previous Degrees

  • BS, Mechanical Engineering, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomos, Nigeria, 2014
  • MS, Mechanical Engineering, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, Turkey, 2019


Debangshu Paul

Degree Program: Doctoral (Anticipated December 2025)
Previous Degrees

  • BS, Mechanical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2017
  • BS, Mechanical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2013


Agnila Ghosh Surovi

Degree Program: Master (Anticipated December 2024) and Doctoral (Anticipated December 2027)
Previous Degrees

  • BS, Materials Science and Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna, Bangladesh, 2022


Undergraduate Researchers

None at this time.