Faculty
Professor Matthew Brake started at Rice University in 2016 after working at Sandia National Laboratories for nine years. Prior to Sandia, Prof. Brake graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2007. Prof. Brake has been elected to several leadership positions, including as the chair of the ASME Research Committee on the Mechanics of Jointed Structures, the vice-chair of the Nonlinear Dynamics Technical Division of SEM, and as the secretary of the ASME Technical Committee on Vibration and Sound. He is a recipient of the 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and he recently won the 2018 C.D. Mote Jr Early Career Award. Much of Prof. Brake’s career has focused on developing large scale collaborations and supporting graduate student education. To this end, he founded and directed both the Tribomechadynamics Research Camp at Rice University and the Nonlinear Mechanics and Dynamics (NOMAD) Institute at Sandia National Laboratories. His primary research interests are in interfacial mechanics, tribology, model reduction theory, uncertainty propagation, and nonlinear dynamics.