Shima Shahab, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been named the recipient of the Gary Anderson Early Achievement Award from the Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Gary Anderson, a structural mechanics engineer at the US Army Research Office and a pioneer in the area, is honored with this annual award in his name. Granted since 2007, the award recognizes a young researcher on the rise who has already made significant contributions to the field of Adaptive Structures and Material Systems.

“We are proud to call Dr. Shahab a colleague,” said Interim Department Head Brian Lattimer. “She has been a prolific collaborator across many engineering disciplines, and we are very excited to see how her research continues to drive the development of new innovations.”

Shahab came to Virginia Tech in 2015, the same year she completed her doctoral degree at Georgia Tech. She started her career as an instructor before expanding to research. Now, as director of the Multiphysics Intelligent and Dynamical Systems (MInDS) laboratory, she has focused her research on structural dynamics and wave propagation in ultrasound-responsive intelligent material systems. In one funded project, she deployed ultrasound in pairing with smart materials to push the boundaries of shape memory polymers in a collaboration with her late husband Reza Mirzaeifar.

The award will be formally presented to Shahab at the ASME Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems (SMASIS) September 11-13, 2023.