Woodruff Professor Alper Erturk has been selected to receive the 2020 James W. Dally Young Investigator Award of the Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM). The award was instituted to recognize a young professional (within 10 years of Ph.D.) who has made significant contributions in education and has demonstrated an excellence in research in the field of experimental mechanics. His award citation reads "for landmark work in the area of vibration-based energy harvesting using piezoelectric materials." The formal presentation of the award will take place at the Awards Luncheon during the SEM Conference and Exposition on Experimental and Applied Mechanics (June 7-11, 2020) in Orlando, Florida.

Erturk was previously recognized with two other early career awards: ASME Gary Anderson Early Achievement Award for “notable contributions to the field of adaptive structures and material systems” and ASME C.D. Mote Jr. Early Career Award for “demonstrated research excellence in the field of vibration and acoustics.” His theoretical and experimental research program is centered on the intersection of smart structures and dynamical systems for a broad range of engineering problems spanning from nonlinear energy harvesting and bio-inspired piezoelectric actuation to metamaterial-based vibration attenuation and wireless acoustic power transfer.