Associate Professor

Traumatic brain injury, soft tissue mechanics, bio-inspired design & materials characterization

B.S., Biological Engineering, Louisiana State University, 2001
Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, Mississippi State University, 2006

Characterizing the structure and property relationships of biological tissues for implementation into physics-based constitutive models. Studying injury mechanics and damage mechanisms associated with high impact loads. Specific expertise includes biomechanics, tissue and bone mechanics, bio-inspired materials research, orthopedics research and material characterization.

Honors and Awards

• Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), 2020
• National Role Model Faculty Researcher Award, Minority Access Inc., 2017
• Mississippi Business Journal Top in Technology, 2017
• Mississippi State Institutions of Higher Learning–Diversity Educator of the Year Nominee, 2015
• Mississippi’s Top 21 Most Wanted in Technology, 2014

Selected Publications:
Chen, J., Bryn, B. Prabhu, R., Patnaik, S.S., Bertucci, R., Rhee, H., Horstemeyer, M.F., Hong, Y., Williams, L. N., Liao, J. “Quantitative Analysis of Tissue Damage Evolution in Porcine Liver With Interrupted Mechanical Testing
Under Tension, Compression, and Shear,” Journal of Biomechanical Engineering. 2018, DOI: 10.1115/1.4039825.

Lee, N., Williams, L. N., Mun, S., Rhee, H., Prabhu, R; Bhattarai, K., Horstemeyer, M.”Stress wave mitigation at suture interfaces,” Biomedical Physics and Engineering Express. 2017, DOI: 10.1088/2057-1976/aa777e

Rush, G. Alston, Prabhu, R., Rush, Gus A. III, Williams, L.N., Horstemeyer, M.F., “A Modified Drop Test for American Football Helmets,” Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2017, DOI:10.3791/53929 2017.

Prabhu, R., Whittington, Wilburn., Jones, Michael David, Darwall, Dan, Liao, Jun, Williams, L.N. “Dynamic compressive mechanical properties of the porcine immature brain,” Brain Injury. 30, 2016:674

Lee, Nayeon, Horstemeyer, M.F, Prabhu, R., Liao, J., Rhee, H., Hammi, Y., Moser, Robert D.,  Williams, L.N “The geometric effects of a woodpecker’s hyoid apparatus for stress wave mitigation,” Bioinspiration & Biomimetics. 11, 2016, DOI:10.1088/1748-3190/11/6/066004

Wheatley, B. B., Pietsch, R. B., Donahue, T.L.H., Williams, L.N. “Fully non-linear hyper-viscoelastic modeling of skeletal muscle in compression,” Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering. 2015: DOI:10.1080/10255842.2015.1118468