John Domann recently accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics (BEAM) Department at Virginia Tech. He is currently finishing his PhD working in the Active Materials Laboratory of Professor Greg Carman at UCLA. Prior to joining UCLA he earned his BS and MS degrees from the University of Kansas. At KU, he was a Fellow with the Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation and co-invented a piezoelectric spinal fusion implant that recently finished a successful animal trial and has been licensed by a startup company.
At UCLA, John’s work has broadly focused on the dynamics of magnetoelastic materials across numerous size and time scales. He has worked with AFRL researchers from Eglin Air Force Base to conducted experimental studies on the impact and shock response of the magnetoelastic material Galfenol. This work included analysis of Galfenol’s use in pulsed power generation devices, as well as the first analytic model of a strain powered antenna. His recent work with members of the NSF Nanosystems ERC: Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems (TANMS) has focused on the strain mediated control of nanoscale magnetism. The goal of this work is to create novel devices with multiple order of magnitude energy efficiency improvements of current state of the art electronics. He has collaborated with numerous TANMS researchers to explore the magnetoelastic control of the quantum mechanical exchange bias effect, energy efficient magnetic logic devices, novel antenna designs, and micron scale magnetic motors. In addition to his research, John has worked with fellow TANMS members to develop teaching modules for high school and undergraduate students, introducing them to multiferroic materials and devices. At Virginia Tech he looks forward to continuing his research on multiferroic devices, and looking at their use for numerous biomedical applications.