Education

B.S. Physics UMass 2016

Research

Applications of geometry, topology, and symmetries in soft matter physics with an emphasis on the mechanics of thin sheets. I am currently studying the relationship between crease patterns and mechanical response in periodic origami sheets. These structures appear in biological systems and are applied for engineering purposes as mechanical metamaterials, though little has been done towards a generic classification of crease patterns. My work has so far illustrated the general properties of all origami triangulations (published in PNAS and awarded Sigma Xi Best Faculty Paper to my advisor Zeb Rocklin) and I am now making similar progress towards sheets with parallelograms. I will be joining the Mao-Sun group at UMich as a postdoc after graduation in summer 2021.

Papers

McInerney et al., “Hidden Symmetries Generate Rigid Folding Mechanisms in Periodic Origami” under revision at PNAS. 

McInerney et al., Geometric Twist and Chiral Instabilities in Homeotropic Tori” Soft Matter (2019).

Ellis et al., “Curvature-Induced Twist in Homeotropic Nematic Tori” PRL (2018).