Ayyana M. Chakravartula received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005. She currently works at Exponent, Inc. in Menlo Park, CA, in its Mechanics and Materials practice. She has worked as a research scientist at the Cambridge Polymer Group in Boston, MA, and has served as an adjunct lecturer at Boston University. She has mentored numerous students, interns and research assistants in her graduate and postgraduate career.