Taher Saif

Professor Saif was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He earned BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and Washington State University, followed by a PhD in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Cornell University. He conducted postdoctoral research on MEMS at Cornell Electrical Engineering before joining the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1997. His interdisciplinary work spans mechanics of neurons and cardiac cells, tumor microenvironments, biohybrid robotics, and nanomaterials. Professor Saif is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He received the 2018 Koiter Medal from American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the 2020 Engineering Science Medal from the Society of Engineering Science. In 2024, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering of USA. He was end