Namas Chandra


Namas Chandra is the Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director, Center for Injury Bio-mechanics, Materials, and Medicine at New Jersey Institute of Technology. He held Elmer-Koch Professorship of Engineering and recent past Associate Dean for research and Graduate Studies at the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the Director of $5.8 M UNL-Army Center for Trauma Mechanics. Chandra completed his PhD in mechanical engineering in 1986 at Texas A&M University. From 1986 to 2006, he was at Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Florida State University. In 2006, Chandra became the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at UNL. He also served as Elmer E. Koch Professor of Engineering Mechanics at College of Engineering in University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He finished his MS from University of Houston in 1983 and PhD from Texas A&M University in 1986. In 2005, he won FSU's 'Outstanding Researcher' award.
Chandra's research interests include materials science, mechanics of materials and structures, molecular dynamics, superplasticity, composites, and thermal properties of composites.
He is the director of the Trauma Mechanics Research Initiative and the BioMechanics and Materials Laboratory at UNL. His research concerns the mechanics of improvised explosive devices and their effects on brain tissue. Chandra's study of traumatic brain injury is primarily for the United States military, a major sponsor of the research initiative.

Chapters in books

  1. Superplastic Materials and Superplastic Metal Forming, Handbook of Metallurgical Process Design, ed. G. E. Totten, K. Funatani and L. Xie, Mercel Dekker Publications,, 46 Pages, 205-250.
  2. Hierarchical Modeling of Deformation of Materials from the Atomic to Continuum Scale, Multiscale Modeling and Simulation of Composite Materials and Structures, ed. Y.W. Kwon, D. H. Allen, R. Talreja, Spring Publications,, 48 Pages, 579-624.

    Research contracts and frants

  3. Factors that Facilitate or Inhibit Enrollment of Domestic Engineering PhD Students; A Mixed Methods Study, National Science Foundation, $149,851, PI: N. Chandra, 9/1/2009 to 8/30/2011.
  4. UNL-Army Center for Trauma Mechanics, Army Research Office, $3,261,250, PI: N. Chandra, 9/1/2008 to 8/31/2010.
  5. Adaptive heat sinks: alloyed copper/carbon nanofibers, Cooperation Program between Midi-Pyrenees and Aquitaine, €306, 900, co-PI: N. Chandra, 2006 to 2009 for Amelie Veillere.
  6. Heat sinks with controlled architecture and carbon nanotubes and/or nanofibers, €657, 550, Research Foundation for aeronautics and space, co-PI: N. Chandra, 2006 to 2009 for Guillaume Lacombe.
  7. UNL-Advance, National Science Foundation, $3, 181, 000, PI: B. Couture, Co-PI: N. Chandra, M. Holmes, J. McQuillan, D. Mandersheid, 7/01/2008 to 8/31/2013.