Yuri Bazilevs, a pioneer of Isogeometric Analysis, a physics-based modeling and computational methodology that bridges the gap between computer-aided design (CAD) and finite element analysis (FEA) and offers the potential to revolutionize design-through-analysis workflows in the automobile, ship and aircraft industry, will join the School of Engineering on June 1, 2026, as a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He also will hold the Orin Ingram Endowed Chair in Engineering.
Bazilevs comes to Vanderbilt after holding leadership roles at Brown University and University of California, San Diego (UCSD). At Brown, he holds the E. Paul Sorensen Chair in the School of Engineering and serves as the founder and inaugural director of the Mechanics of Undersea Science and Engineering (MUSE) research center. Previously, he served as vice chair and professor in the Structural Engineering department and as adjunct professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department in the Jacobs School of Engineering at UCSD.
Bazilevs’s research spans structural analysis and design, high-performance computational mechanics, and fluid-structure interaction with applications ranging from aerospace composites to undersea engineering. He is included in Clarivate’s annual list of highly cited researchers, both in the engineering and computer science categories, and has led or co-led more than 25 grants with over $16 million in awards.
“I’m delighted to welcome Professor Bazilevs to Vanderbilt,” said Krish Roy, the Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of Engineering and University Distinguished Professor. “His enormous research contributions in areas spanning aerospace engineering and naval design, fluid dynamics, and applied computational modeling, add significantly to the School of Engineering’s key areas of societal and scientific impact.”
Roy noted that Bazilevs’s groundbreaking work aligns with the School of Engineering’s priority research areas, outlined in a recent strategic plan. These include improving human health, ensuring a sustainable environment, enhancing national security, and innovating beyond Earth.
“As we embark on the School of Engineering’s $300 million Power the Impossible fundraising campaign, we are endeavoring to build a research and teaching faculty that is second to none,” Roy said. “Professor Bazilevs will play a key role in helping us achieve our bold ambitions.”
A STRONG RECORD OF RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Bazilevs has received numerous academic awards and honors, including the Walter E. Huber Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Gustus L. Larson Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the inaugural 2021 Centennial Mid-Career Award from the Materials Division of the ASME, and the IACM Computational Mechanics Award from the International Association for Computational Mechanics. He is a fellow of the United States Association for Computational Mechanics, the Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI) of the ASCE, and elected fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
In addition to coauthoring two books, Bazilevs has published more than 200 journal papers on computational solid, structural and fluid mechanics, and fluid–structure interaction, and has held numerous editor and editorial board positions, as well as serving as organizer of several national and international conferences.
At Vanderbilt, working with professors Caglar Oskay (CEE), Huoxiang Luo (ME) and De-En Jiang (ChE), Bazilevs has a mandate to build and lead an AI-enabled computational engineering research and education center. Tentatively named the Vanderbilt Center for Simulation, Computational-modeling, and AI-integrated Learning for Engineering Systems (SCALES), the new entity will focus on developing interdisciplinary research and graduate-education programs. The SCALES center will bring together Vanderbilt faculty that are passionate about developing and using modern AI-enabled physics-based simulation methods and tools to address problems of contemporary significance in engineering and physical sciences.
“I am very excited to join Vanderbilt, especially in this period of significant investment in computing and rapid growth of the Engineering School,” said Bazilevs. “I’m eager to engage in research and teaching at Vanderbilt and to work with colleagues in engineering and beyond to build scientifically and societally impactful, collaborative research and graduate-education programs.”
Bazilevs earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his doctorate in computational engineering and sciences from the University of Texas at Austin.