Dr Dias obtained his BSc in Physics from the State University of São Paulo, Brazil. Four years later, he commenced an MSc in Theoretical Physics at his alma mater. In 2012, he obtained his PhD in Physics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA, where he researched the mechanics of origami structures and mechanisms of three-dimensional shape formation.
Dr Dias has worked as a researcher on a broad range of topics in soft condensed matter physics, mechanics, and applied mathematics at Brown University School of Engineering in the USA, Aalto University in Finland, and the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics at KTH in Sweden. During this period, he was awarded prestigious independent research fellowship by Nordita. He subsequently joined James Madison University as an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, where he established the Structures, Materials and Art Mechanics (SMART) Laboratory.
He then joined Aarhus University in Denmark as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and was later promoted to Associate Professor, where he led the research group Mechanical Metamaterials and Soft Matter. Before joining Furman University, Dr Dias was a Reader in the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, where he led the Mechanics and Geometry of Advanced Structures Laboratory (MEGA SLab) and was awarded a UKRI EPSRC Open Fellowship.
Honors and Awards
- UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Open Fellowship, 2022
- Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (Nordita) Fellowship, 2014
- Kandula Sastry Graduate Best Thesis Award, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2014
- Oxford Centre for Collaborative and Applied Mathematics (OCCAM) Studentship, University of Oxford, 2012
- Theoretical Physics Institute Foundation (FIFT) Fellowship, Brazil, 2004.
Education
- Ph.D. in Physics (2012), University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
- M.Sc. in Physics (2007), Theoretical Physics Institute – IFT, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
- B.Sc. in Physics (2004), State University of São Paulo – UNESP, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil
Research Interests
My research examines how geometry controls mechanical response in structures: how shape, curvature, topology, and constraints determine deformation, stability, and failure. I work at the interface of physics, mathematics, and engineering, with a particular interest in architected materials. The overarching aim is to establish transferable principles that connect form to function, enabling the design of structures and materials with programmable shape, stiffness, motion, and failure.
A longstanding theme of my work is the mechanics of thin elastic structures, including sheets, rods, ribbons, shells, and folds. I have developed theoretical and reduced-order descriptions of curved-crease origami, folded elastic strips, elastic ribbons, conical deformations, and thin structures undergoing large deformation. This work combines nonlinear elasticity and differential geometry to explain how curvature, creases, and geometric incompatibility generate behaviors such as buckling, wrinkling, localization, and multistability. Examples include programming buckling through controlled swelling in thin sheets, developing unified descriptions of ribbons and thin rods, and establishing geometric frameworks for non-rigid origami and kirigami mechanics.
These ideas have led naturally to research on origami- and kirigami-inspired structures. Cutting and folding provide powerful routes for transforming initially flat sheets into three-dimensional systems with controlled motion and mechanical response. My work has addressed kirigami actuators, multistable architected materials, bistable folds, and shape-morphing structures, including inverse-design approaches for programmable kirigami. A central question is how cuts, creases, and geometric constraints can be designed to produce desired shapes, energy landscapes, and mechanical functions—relevant to deployable structures, soft robotics, adaptive devices, and advanced manufacturing.
My current research increasingly focuses on mechanical metamaterials, architected interfaces, and fracture by design. In these materials, mechanical performance can be tuned through architecture as well as constituent material properties. I study auxetic lattices, tensegrity and linkage-based mechanisms, composite cellular structures, and 3D-printed structural systems. A particular emphasis is the mechanics of failure: how lattice geometry, topology, disorder, and interfaces determine where cracks initiate and how damage propagates. Recent work in my group investigates mechanisms of damage in topological metamaterials and seeks to redirect, arrest, or exploit fracture rather than treating it solely as an inevitable failure mode. This research underpins my current interest on metamaterial adhesives and the functionalization of bondlines, with potential applications in tougher joints, lightweight structures, and damage-tolerant engineered materials.
I also apply geometric ideas across a wider range of physical systems. My research has contributed to understanding the role of transverse-arch curvature in the stiffness of the human foot; contact in soft polymeric shells; topological defects in soft-matter systems; and low-Reynolds-number swimming near deformable membranes. Although these problems span biomechanics, soft condensed matter, and fluid–structure interaction, they are united by the same premise: geometry is often a decisive—and exploitable—determinant of physical behavior.
Students in our team work across these themes using analytical mechanics, variational methods, differential geometry, computational mechanics—including finite-element and phase-field modeling—and physical experimentation. Our approach combines mathematical modeling with simulation, fabrication, and close collaboration with a broad range of experts, creating opportunities to work across physics, mathematics, materials science, and engineering.
Publications
- M. Walker and M. Dias. “Spherical image analysis of origami and kirigami,” Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 482.2337 (2026)
- L. de Waal, M. Chouzouris, and M. A. Dias, “Cracking Down on Fracture to Functionalize Damage,” Physical Review Letters 135 (2025), 148202
- L. de Waal, M. Chouzouris, and M. A. Dias, “Architecting mechanisms of damage in topological metamaterials,” Physical Review Research 7 (2025), 033177
- X. Ying, D. Fernando, and M. A. Dias, “Inverse design of programmable shape-morphing kirigami structures,” International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 286 (2025), 109840
- B. Davies, S. Szyniszewski, M. A. Dias, L. de Waal, and et al. “Roadmap on metamaterial theory, modelling and design,” Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 58.20 (2025), p. 203002
- R. Sahli, J. Mikkelsen, M. S. Boye, M. A. Dias, and R. Aghababaei. “Frictional contact of soft polymeric shells,” Physical Review Letters 133.10 (2024), p. 106202.
- S. Sadik, M. G. Walker, and M. A. Dias. “On local kirigami mechanics II: Stretchable creased solutions,” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 161 (2022), p. 104812.
- S. Sadik and M. A. Dias. “On local kirigami mechanics I: Isometric conical solutions,” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 151 (2021), p. 104370.
- A. E. F. Athanasiadis, M. A. Dias, and M. K. Budzik, “Can confined mechanical metamaterials replace adhesives?” Extreme Mechanics Letters 48 (2021), 101411
- M. Oster, M. A. Dias, T. de Wolff, and M. E. Evans, “Reentrant tensegrity: A three-periodic, chiral, tensegrity structure that is auxetic,” Science Advances 7 (2021), eabj6737
- M. Venkadesan et al., including M. A. Dias, “Stiffness of the human foot and evolution of the transverse arch,” Nature 579 (2020), 97–100
- I Andrade-Silva, M Adda-Bedia, and M. A. Dias. “Foldable cones as a framework for nonrigid origami,” Physical Review E 100.3 (2019), p. 033003.
- Y. Yang, M. A. Dias, and D. P. Holmes, “Multistable kirigami for tunable architected materials,” Physical Review Materials 2 (2018), 110601
- M. A. Dias, M. P. McCarron, D. Rayneau-Kirkhope, P. Z. Hanakata, D. K. Campbell, H. S. Park, and D. P. Holmes, “Kirigami actuators,” Soft Matter 13 (2017), 9087–9092
- M. A. Dias and B. Audoly, “A non-linear rod model for folded elastic strips,” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 62 (2014), 57–80
- M. A. Dias, L. H. Dudte, L. Mahadevan, and C. D. Santangelo, “Geometric mechanics of curved crease origami,” Physical Review Letters 109 (2012), 114301
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