People
Adrian Gestos​
Director, MIMIC
adrian.gestos@colorado.edu​
Adrian joined CU Boulder in September 2020 and manages the Materials Instrumentation and Multimodal Imaging Core (MIMIC). Prior to CU Boulder, Adrian worked with the water electrolysis start-up AquaHydrex, managing a team to scale up electrode production as well as conducting fundamental studies into catalyst and membrane performance. Adrian obtained a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Wollongong (UOW) in Australia, focussing on the properties of polymer nanofibers investigated with atomic force microscopy. This is not his first experience with core facilities, having previously managed a coating and fabrication facility at UOW.
Virginia Ferguson
Professor
virginia.ferguson@colorado.edu
Faculty Website
Dr. Ferguson is an expert in soft-hard tissue (e.g., osteochondral) interface tissue mechanics; nano- and micro-indentation of bone, soft tissues, and hydrogels for tissue regeneration; and in how aging, disuse, and metabolic disease detrimentally alter quality of the materials that make up bone and other musculoskeletal tissues. Her lab also draws inspiration from biological materials and structures to form novel engineered materials, using advanced manufacturing techniques for tissue regeneration. She has led two National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation awards for instruments and established the MIMIC core facility to house these tools and to broadly enable multimodal imaging and multiscale mechanical materials characterization.
Wil Srubar
Associate Professor
wsrubar@colorado.edu
Faculty Website
Dr. Wil Srubar is an associate professor of civil and architectural engineering and materials science at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ, where he leads the Living Materials Laboratory. Dr. Srubar holds a PhD from Stanford University, as well as BS and MS degrees from Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin, respectively. His research integrates synthetic biology, polymer science, and cement chemistry to create low-carbon, biomimetic, and living material technologies for the built environment. To date, his laboratory has received >$8M in sponsored research funding through the US National Science Foundation (NSF), Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL), ARPA-E, and DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, and he is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award. He has authored >85 technical journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings, and his work has been highlighted in The Washington Post, National Public Radio (NPR), and The New York Times. He remains actively involved in leadership positions for the American Concrete Institute (ACI), the American Ceramic Society’s Cements Division, and ASCE’s Architectural Engineering Institute.​