"In an era where expanding technological limits are at high demand, complex matter – materials that are sophisticated in their complexity on a multitude of length scales – form an ideal platform for the design and control of new material with improved functionality."

Monica Zakhari is an Assistant Professor in the Processing and Performance of Materials group at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Her expertise encompasses multiscale modelling and simulations of complex matter, such as suspensions and emulsions. Her research aims at the discovery and understanding of fundamental phenomena in the behavior of complex matter and applying this knowledge to modeling and design of natural and industrial processes. Relevant application areas of her work are in the fields of 3D (food) printing, 4D printing, (responsive) coatings, drug delivery, and microfluidics. She actively tackles these challenges using computational and theoretical tools and focus currently on research areas that include, mechanics and hydrodynamics of soft permeable particle systems, particle morphology in complex matter, and micromechanics of biological systems.

Monica Zakhari has a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree in Engineering and Material Science from the German University in Cairo (Egypt), and conducted her B.Sc. project on microscopic modeling of Al-Si alloys at Stuttgart University (Germany) and graduated top of her class. She pursued a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in Computational Mechanics, following an Erasmus Mundus program in both Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain) and Swansea University (Swansea, UK). Her M.Sc. thesis entitled "Computational homogenization of heterogeneous hyperelastic materials" was awarded the Ernest Hinton Memorial Prize for best master thesis from Swansea University (UK) for the year 2013. In the same year, she became a doctoral candidate at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Polymer Technology group. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in 2018 on her thesis entitled "Microscale simulations of the mechanics of spongy-particle systems". From mid 2018 to mid 2020, she joined Stanford University (USA) as a postdoc with prof. Roseanna N. Zia, followed by another postdoc with prof. Roger T. Bonnecaze at the University of Texas at Austin (USA). As of June 2021, Monica Zakhari is appointed Assistant Professor in the Processing and Performance of Materials group at TU/e. 

Graduation projects available! 

If the micromechanics of soft matter, 3D and 4D printing, and flow of cells and other particles in microfluidic devices or my research directions in general are of interest to you, do not hesitate to contact me.