Ellen Arruda obtained her B.S. and M.S. at Pennsylvania State University and Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the Tim Manganello/BorgWarner Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering and the Maria Comninou Collegiate Professor of ME and a professor of biomedical engineering, macromolecular science, and engineering. Her research focuses on the mechanical behavior of materials including polymers, elastomers, and soft tissue. One of her more recent projects has been with a football helmet design that aims to reduce a key contributor to brain injury. Arruda holds a position as a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Mechanics, Society of Engineering Science, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.