Julia R. Greer

Greer was born in Moscow, Russia, and moved to the U.S. with her parents at the age of 16.[6] Greer attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for college, where she received a Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Advanced Music Performance in 1997.[7][8] Greer then went on to receive graduate degrees in Materials Science and Engineering; she earned a Masters of Science (M.S.) in 2000 and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in 2005, both from Stanford University. Between receiving her M.S. and Ph.D., Greer worked at Intel from 2000-2003.[9] For her dissertation, titled "Size dependence of strength of gold at the micron scale in the absence of strain gradients,"[10] Greer worked with materials scientist William D. Nix studying the mechanical properties of nanopillars.[9] After her PhD, Greer pursued postdoctoral studies at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) from 2005-2007.

Greer joined the Materials Science Department at Caltech in 2007 as an Assistant Professor; she received tenure and was promoted to Full Professor in 2013.[11][12] Her research focuses on the application of nanotechnology in biomedical materials, multi-functional devices, energy storage, and material synthesis.

Greer has received much recognition and several career awards for her work. Her lab's early work has resulted in a new direction in nanomechanics.[9] Her lab is now harnessing strategies in nanofabrication for applications ranging from improving lithium ion batteries to developing biomedical devices.[13]

• 2008 - Technology Review's Top Young Innovators Under 35[1][14]
• 2010 - Nominee for World Technology Network’s World Technology Award in Materials[15]
• 2011 - Sia Nemat-Nasser ASME Early Career Award[16][17]
• 2011 - DOE Early Career Research Program Award[18][19]
• 2011 - The Materials, Metals, and Minerals Society (TMS) Young Leader Professional Development Award[20]
• 2012 - Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award[21][22]
• 2012 - NASA (inaugural) Early Career Faculty Award[23][24][25]
• 2012 - Invitee to World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos[12][26]
• 2013 - Society of Engineering Science (SES) Young Investigator Medal[27]
• 2013 - The Materials, Metals, and Minerals Society (TMS) Early Career Faculty Award[25]
• 2013 - Discussion Leader at and invitee to World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos[26]
• 2013 - Speaker at the 2013 China-America Frontiers of Engineering Symposium[28]
• 2013 - American Chemical Society (ACS) Nano Letters Young Investigator Award and Lectureship[29]
• 2014 - Speaker at Google’s Solve for X Conference[30]
• 2014 - Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF)[31]
• 2014 - One of “100 Most Creative People” by Fast Company Magazine[32]
• 2014 - Robert W. Cahn “Best Paper Prize” by Journal of Materials Science (shared with L. Meza)[33][34]
• 2014 - Kavli Foundation Early Career Lectureship in Materials Science Recipients by the Materials Research Society (MRS)[35][36]
• 2015 - Speaker at the 2015 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium[37]
• 2015 - Midwest Mechanics Tour Lecturer[38]
• 2015 - Gilbreth Lecturer for the National Academy of Engineering[39]
• 2015 - Technology Review’s Top-10 Emerging Technologies[40]
• 2016 - CNN's 2020 Visionary[2]
• 2016 - U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD) National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellow[41][42][43]
• 2016 - U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD) Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow[44]
• 2018 - Featured in Caltech's Breakthrough Campaign[45]

In addition to being a scientist, Greer is also an accomplished pianist. She took piano lessons starting at age 5 and has studied music at several institutions, including Moscow's Gnessin School of Music, the Eastman School of Music, MIT, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Stanford University.[6]

Greer also loves rollerblading. She will occasionally rollerblade to and from work and has even participated in a rollerblading marathon.[6]

• Lecture given at the 2014 MRS Fall Meeting for receiving the Kavli Early Career Award in Nanoscience: "Three Dimensional Architected Nanostructured Meta-Materials"
• Talk given at TEDxCERN in 2014: "The surprising strengths of materials in the nanoworld"
• Talk given at TEDxManhattanBeach in 2016: "Nanotechnology: When Less is More"
• STEM Gems feature: "Bigger Doesn’t Always Mean Stronger: Julia Greer is Changing the Idea of How Materials Are Made"
• Publications by Julia R. Greer at ResearchGate
• Julia R. Greer publications indexed by Google Scholar
• Lab website