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Hire Dr. Joseph N.

United States

USD 100 /hr

Professor, researcher, & author with 10+ years experience in mechanical engineering, materials science, & biomimetics

Profile Summary

Dr. Joseph Najem is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University, where he leads a multidisciplinary research group developing soft materials capable of sensing, information processing, computation, and energy generation. His research integrates principles from biophysics, electrochemistry, mechanical engineering, microfluidics, nonlinear dynamics, materials science, and additive manufacturing to advance the field of intelligent materials and systems. Dr. Najem has authored over 50 technical publications in prestigious journals, such as Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, and ACS Nano. In addition to his research, Dr. Najem teaches core undergraduate and graduate mechanical engineering courses, including engineering vibrations, dynamic systems modeling, controls, and mechanism design. Before joining Penn State, Dr. Najem was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he led an NSF-funded collaboration focused on biomolecular neuromorphic devices. He also completed a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Georgia, where he developed 3D printing techniques for biomolecular materials. Dr. Najem earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2015 and 2012, respectively, and holds a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from the Lebanese American University.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ☆ Materials Science & Engineering
• ☆ Electronic, Optical & Magnetic Materials
• ☆ Electrophysiology
• ☆ Patch-Clamp Electrophysiology
• ☆ Biophysics
• ☆ Biomimetics
• ☆ Mechanical Engineering
• ☆ Mechatronics & Robotics
• ☆ Mechanical Design
• ☆ Artificial Intelligence
• ☆ Liposomes
• ☆ Peer Review
• ☆ Technical & Scientific Writing
• ☆ Science Communication
• ☆ Grant Writing

Services

• Writing
• Research
• Consulting
• Product Development

Writing Technical Writing, General Proofreading & Editing, Translation

Research Scientific and Technical Research, Systematic Literature Review

Consulting Scientific and Technical Consulting

Product Development Device Fabrication

Work Experience

Assistant Professor

Pennsylvania State University

August 2019 - Present

Education

PhD (Mechanical Engineering)

Virginia Tech

May 2012 - December 2015

Master's (Mechanical Engineering)

Virginia Tech

August 2010 - May 2012

Certifications

• Certification details not provided.

Publications

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Haley M. Tholen, Rachel F. Taylor, Derek M. Hall, Joseph S. Najem (2025). Mechanistic insights into electric fish-inspired power sources: A combined modeling and experimental approach . Electrochimica Acta.

Ahmed S. Mohamed, Anurag Dhungel, Md Sakib Hasan, Joseph S. Najem (2024). Intrinsic Voltage Offsets in Memcapacitive Biomembranes Enable High-Performance Physical Reservoir Computing . ACS Applied Engineering Materials.

Joseph S. Najem, Md Sakib Hasan, R. Stanley Williams, Ryan J. Weiss, Garrett S. Rose, Graham J. Taylor, Stephen A. Sarles, C. Patrick Collier (2019). Author Correction: Dynamical nonlinear memory capacitance in biomimetic membranes . Nature Communications.

Joseph S. Najem, Md Sakib Hasan, R. Stanley Williams, Ryan J. Weiss, Garrett S. Rose, Graham J. Taylor, Stephen A. Sarles, C. Patrick Collier (2019). Dynamical nonlinear memory capacitance in biomimetic membranes . Nature Communications.

Subhadeep Koner, Joseph S. Najem, Md Sakib Hasan, Stephen A. Sarles(2019). Memristive plasticity in artificial electrical synapses via geometrically reconfigurable, gramicidin-doped biomembranes . Nanoscale. Royal Society of Chemistry ({RSC})

Joseph S. Najem, Graham J. Taylor, Ryan J. Weiss, Md Sakib Hasan, Garrett Rose, Catherine D. Schuman, Alex Belianinov, C. Patrick Collier, Stephen A. Sarles(2018). Memristive Ion Channel-Doped Biomembranes as Synaptic Mimics . ACS Nano. 12. (5). p. 4702--4711. American Chemical Society ({ACS})

BOOK CHAPTER

Ahmed S. Mohamed, Ashlee S. Liao, Yongjie Jessica Zhang, Victoria A. Webster-Wood, Joseph S. Najem (2022). Design of a Biomolecular Neuristor Circuit for Bioinspired Control .