Professor & Associate Chair for Graduate Studies

Traumatic brain injury, soft tissue mechanics, bio-inspired design & materials characterization

B.S., Biological Engineering, Louisiana State University, 2001
Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, Mississippi State University, 2006

Characterizing the structure and property relationships of biological tissues for implementation into physics-based constitutive models. Studying injury mechanics and damage mechanisms associated with high impact loads. Specific expertise includes biomechanics, tissue and bone mechanics, bio-inspired materials research, orthopedics research and material characterization.

Honors and Awards

• Research Excellence Award, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, 2022
• Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), 2020
• National Role Model Faculty Researcher Award, Minority Access Inc., 2017
• Mississippi Business Journal Top in Technology, 2017
• Mississippi State Institutions of Higher Learning–Diversity Educator of the Year Nominee, 2015
• Mississippi’s Top 21 Most Wanted in Technology, 2014

Selected Publications:
Google Scholar Citations Link

Chen, J., Bryn, B. Prabhu, R., Patnaik, S.S., Bertucci, R., Rhee, H., Horstemeyer, M.F., Hong, Y., Williams, L. N., Liao, J. “Quantitative Analysis of Tissue Damage Evolution in Porcine Liver With Interrupted Mechanical Testing
Under Tension, Compression, and Shear,” Journal of Biomechanical Engineering. 2018, DOI: 10.1115/1.4039825.

Lee, N., Williams, L. N., Mun, S., Rhee, H., Prabhu, R; Bhattarai, K., Horstemeyer, M.”Stress wave mitigation at suture interfaces,” Biomedical Physics and Engineering Express. 2017, DOI: 10.1088/2057-1976/aa777e

Rush, G. Alston, Prabhu, R., Rush, Gus A. III, Williams, L.N., Horstemeyer, M.F., “A Modified Drop Test for American Football Helmets,” Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2017, DOI:10.3791/53929 2017.

Prabhu, R., Whittington, Wilburn., Jones, Michael David, Darwall, Dan, Liao, Jun, Williams, L.N. “Dynamic compressive mechanical properties of the porcine immature brain,” Brain Injury. 30, 2016:674

Lee, Nayeon, Horstemeyer, M.F, Prabhu, R., Liao, J., Rhee, H., Hammi, Y., Moser, Robert D.,  Williams, L.N “The geometric effects of a woodpecker’s hyoid apparatus for stress wave mitigation,” Bioinspiration & Biomimetics. 11, 2016, DOI:10.1088/1748-3190/11/6/066004

Wheatley, B. B., Pietsch, R. B., Donahue, T.L.H., Williams, L.N. “Fully non-linear hyper-viscoelastic modeling of skeletal muscle in compression,” Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering. 2015: DOI:10.1080/10255842.2015.1118468