David Pierce

Associate Professor

School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering

Dr. Pierce received the B.S. degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees (with S.D. Sheppard) from Stanford University, CA, all in mechanical engineering. Additionally, he received a Ph.D. -Minor degree in mathematics from Stanford University and completed his Habilitation (Venia Legendi) in experimental and computational biomechanics (with G.A. Holzapfel) at the Graz University of Technology, Austria. With the Interdisciplinary Mechanics Laboratory at UConn he studies the theory, development and application of pragmatic computational methods for physical problems of practical importance using computational and experimental solid (bio)mechanics, finite element methods, applied mathematics, and corollary programming/software.

His recent work proposes several new 3-D, large strain constitutive models for articular cartilage, facilitating FE simulation of sample/patient-specific cartilage deformation, fiber network response and fluid permeation; he has also developed techniques to incorporate medical imaging data (e.g. from ultra-high field diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging and multiphoton microscopy). Applications include the mechanics of cartilage in health and disease, the mechanics of arteries, and fracture prediction methodologies for microelectromechanical systems in collaboration with A.M. Fitzgerald & Associates, LLC in CA.