HARVARD
Materials Research Science and Engineering Center
 
 
 
Graduate Student

Aria Hamann
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Aria is a first year graduate student in Applied Physics at Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering & Applied Sciences. As an undergraduate she worked in Shmuel Rubinstein's lab as a MRSEC REU summer student, studying how hydraulic fractures respond to differential strength interfaces in brittle hydrogels. She also conducted accelerator-based nuclear physics with the Modular Neutron Array Collaboration, including an experiment to study the exotic, neutron-rich nucleus of Helium-10 at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. After graduating from Westmont College with a degree in physics and fine art, Aria worked as a guest researcher at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands as a Fulbright Fellow. Her work focused on computer modeling of Managed Aquifer Recharge operations to safeguard freshwater resources in the Netherlands and Bangladesh. Aria is currently a graduate student with James Rice, working in a team with Will Steinhardt, a graduate student with Shmuel Rubinstein, on understanding the dynamics of hydraulic fracture propagation, and how the stability of a fracture can be used as a sensitive material probe. This work is conducted in MRSEC IRG1, in collaboration with Shmuel Rubinstein, James Rice, and David Weitz.