Fellowship / Fellows

Yahya Modarres-Sadeghi

  • 2022–2023
  • Engineering & Computer Science
  • University of Massachusetts Amherst
Yahya Modarres-Sadeghi
Photo by Lou Jones

This information is accurate as of the fellowship year indicated for each fellow.

Yahya Modarres-Sadeghi is a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research focuses on fluid-structure interactions (FSI), which is at the intersection of fluid mechanics and nonlinear dynamics. He uses experimental, theoretical, and numerical tools to understand different FSI phenomena, both from a fundamental point of view and with applications in several fields, including renewable energy, biology, and medicine.

At Radcliffe, Modarres-Sadeghi will work on his project “Swims with the Fishes,” focused on designing a biomimetic robotic fish that integrates with marine environments and explores fish behavior in their habitat. The design of this robot relies on an existing fast-starting robotic fish, recently designed and built in his lab, that can achieve accelerations as high as the maximum measured in live fishes while closely matching the live fishes’ swimming patterns. The new generation of the robot will be capable of both fast-start and straight swimming and can transition from one to the other.

After receiving his PhD from McGill University, Modarres-Sadeghi spent three years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral associate. He is an associate editor for the Journal of Fluids and Structures and a recipient of a Fonds de recherche du QuébecNature et technologies postdoctoral fellowship, an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship from Delft University of Technology, and a Joliot Chair at ESPCI Paris. His recent joint exhibition In the Wake: Drawing Dynamics of Vortical Structures showcased the result of his collaborative work with architects to visualize fluid mechanics phenomena.

Our 2023–2024 Fellows

01 / 09

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