Aniruddh Vashisth

Education

• Ph.D. Engineering Sciences and Mechanics Engineering, Pennsylvania State University
• M.S. Engineering Science and Mechanics Engineering, Pennsylvania State University
• B.Tech. Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology- BHU, India

Previous appointments

• Postdoctoral Researcher, Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M, 2020

Research Statement

My research lies at the intersection of mechanics of materials, polymer physics, and field–matter interactions, with the goal of enabling rapid, energy-efficient manufacturing of next-generation materials. I focus on three core pillars: (i) rapid manufacturing, particularly through radio-frequency (RF) and electromagnetic heating for volumetric, inside-to-outside processing; (ii) recyclable and reprocessable polymers, especially vitrimers that combine the strength of thermosets with the reprocessability of thermoplastics; and (iii) polymer physics through molecular simulations and AI/ML, where I develop predictive frameworks to understand and design material behavior across scales. My work integrates experiments, theory, and data-driven approaches to uncover mechanisms under far-from-equilibrium conditions and translate them into scalable manufacturing processes.

Select publications

1. Nandi, A., Lagron, A., Koenig, A., Monson, C., Golder, M. R., Koratkar, N., & Vashisth, A. (2026). Reversing Damage for Improved Compression after impact in Vitrimer Composites. Composites Part B: Engineering, 113438.
2. Zheng, Y., Thakolkaran, P., Biswal, A. K., Smith, J. A., Lu, Z., Zheng, S., Kumar, S., & Vashisth, A. (2025). AI‐Guided Inverse Design and Discovery of Recyclable Vitrimeric Polymers. Advanced Science, 12(6), 2411385.
3. Zheng, Y., Varshney, V., & Vashisth, A. (2025). Accelerated ReaxFF Simulations of Vitrimers with Dynamic Covalent Adaptive Networks. Macromolecules, 58(10), 4948-4958.
4. Thodikayil, A. T., Biswal, A. K., Vashisth, A., & Saha, S. (2025). Radiofrequency-triggered release of therapeutics from graphene oxide-loaded polysaccharide based core–shell microspheres. Nanoscale, 17(29), 17057-17074.
5. Zhang, Z., Biswal, A.K., Nandi, A., Frost, K., Smith, J.A., Nguyen, B.H., Patel, S., Vashisth, A. and Iyer, V., (2024). Recyclable vitrimer-based printed circuit boards for sustainable electronics. Nature Sustainability, 7(5), pp.616-627.
6. Biswal, A. K., Nandi, A., Wang, H., & Vashisth, A. (2023). Ultrasonic welding of fiber reinforced vitrimer composites. Composites Science and Technology, 242, 110202.
7. Vashisth, A., Healey, R. E., Pospisil, M. J., Oh, J. H., & Green, M. J. (2020). Continuous processing of pre-pregs using radio frequency heating. Composites Science and Technology, 108211.
8. Zhao, X., Vashisth, A., Prehn, E., Sun, W., Shah, S. A., Habib, T., ... & Green, M. J. (2019). Antioxidants unlock shelf-stable Ti3C2Tx (MXene) nanosheet dispersions. Matter, 1(2), 513-526.
9. Vashisth, A., Ashraf, C., Zhang, W., Bakis, C. E., & Van Duin, A. C. (2018). Accelerated ReaxFF simulations for describing the reactive cross-linking of polymers. The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 122(32), 6633-6642.
10. Vashisth, A., Bakis, C. E., Ruggeri, C. R., Henry, T. C., & Roberts, G. D. (2018). Ballistic impact response of carbon/epoxy tubes with variable nanosilica content. Journal of Composite Materials, 52(12), 1589-1604.

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