Robert J Wagner

Dr. Wagner earned his BS in mechanical engineering from Union College (2013). From 2013-17, he was an application engineer at GE Oil & Gas where he saw how materials science sits at the forefront of engineering innovation. Thus, he pursued his PhD in Materials Science & Engineering at CU Boulder under Franck Vernerey (2017-22), investigating the emergent mechanical properties of dynamic and living networks. From 2022-23, he completed postdoctoral training under Meredith Silberstein at Cornell, studying thermomechanical aging of vitrimers. In 2024, he joined Binghamton University’s Mechanical Engineering Department as assistant professor and founded the Polymer and Soft Matter Mechanics Lab. His group focuses on predictively designing ultratough elastomers and gels with targeted mechanical response; mitigating physicochemical aging and degradation of plastics and composites; and expanding the strength-toughness Pareto fronts of additively manufactured interfaces and metamaterial