About

Glaucio H Paulino is the Margareta Engman Augustine Professor of Engineering at Princeton University, holding appointments in Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Princeton Materials Institute (PMI), Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. His research focuses on applied mechanics, including the development of methodologies to characterize the deformation and fracture behavior of existing and emerging materials such as architected materials. He works on topology optimization for large-scale multiscale and multiphysics problems, computational mechanics, variational methods like mimetic-based virtual elements, and deployable and adaptable structures, including origami engineering. His methods for topology optimization have been employed by industry, academia, and national laboratories. Professor Paulino is also a prominent figure in the field of structural and multidisciplinary optimization, serving as co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, and holding editorial roles in several other scientific journals. He has received numerous honors, including election to the US National Academy of Engineering, Academia Europaea, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, as well as prestigious medals such as the Theodore von Karman Medal, the Raymond D. Mindlin Medal, and the Daniel C. Drucker Medal. His contributions to engineering science and mechanics have been recognized through various awards and invited lectures worldwide.

Research topics

• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Mechanical engineering
• Nanotechnology
• Materials science
• Composite material
• Optoelectronics
• Structural engineering
• Electrical engineering
• Control engineering

Selected publications

• Actuation driven pseudo-crease mechanics in multistable curved-crease origami shells

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-01-26

  otherOpen accessSenior author

  Software associated to the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) paper titled "Actuation driven pseudo-crease mechanics in multistable curved-crease origami shells"

  PublisherDOI

• Growing Kirigami with Self-healing and Reprogrammable Mechanical Properties

  Lecture notes in mechanical engineering · 2026-01-01

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Actuation driven pseudo-crease mechanics in multistable curved-crease origami shells

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-01-26

  otherOpen accessSenior author

  Software associated to the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) paper titled "Actuation driven pseudo-crease mechanics in multistable curved-crease origami shells"

  PublisherDOI

• Unbiased mechanical cloaks

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025-05-09 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The distinction between "reinforcement" and "cloaking" has been overlooked in optimization-based design of devices intended to conceal a defect in an elastic medium. In the former, a so-called "cloak" is severely biased toward one or a few specific elastic disturbances, whereas in the latter, an "unbiased cloak" is effective under any elastic disturbance. We propose a two-stage approach for optimization-based design of elastostatic cloaks that targets true, unbiased cloaks. First, we perform load-case optimization to find a finite set of worst-case design loads. Then we perform topology optimization of the cloak microstructure under these worst-case loads using a judicious choice of the objective function, formulated in terms of energy mismatch. Although a small subset of the infinite load cases that the cloak must handle, these highly nonintuitive, worst-case loads lead to designs that approach perfect and unbiased elastostatic cloaking. In demonstration, we consider elastic media composed of spinodal architected materials, which provides an ideal testbed for exploring elastostatic cloaks in media with varying anisotropy and porosity, without sacrificing manufacturability. To numerically verify the universal nature of our cloaks, we compare the elastic response of the medium containing the cloaked defect to that of the undisturbed medium under many random load cases not considered during design. By using digital light processing additive manufacturing to realize the elastic media containing cloaked defects and analyzing their response experimentally using compression testing with digital image correlation, this study provides a physical demonstration of elastostatic cloaking of a three-dimensional defect in a three-dimensional medium.

  PublisherDOI

• Wireless Actuation of Magnetic Robots with a Modular 60 mT 3-D Helmholtz Coil System

  2025-03-16

  article

  This paper presents the modeling and design of a three-dimensional (3-D) Helmholtz coil system for wireless control of magnetically actuated robots. Instead of using moving permanent magnets to generate the external magnetic field needed for magnetic actuation, driving a set of stationary Helmholtz coils with power electronics offers enhanced control flexibility and precision through active feedback. A modular drive is developed to operate the custom pulsed 15 kW 60 mT 3-D Helmholtz coil setup. A method for modeling the generated magnetic field is developed to enable the precise motion control of untethered robots. The prototype system is verified by precisely actuating a magnetized cubic robot.

  PublisherDOI

• Coarse-grained fundamental forms for characterizing isometries of trapezoid-based origami metamaterials

  Nature Communications · 2025-02-20 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Investigations of origami tessellations as effective media reveal the ability to program the components of their elasticity tensor, and thus control the mechanical behavior of thin sheets. However, existing efforts focus on crease patterns that are composed of parallelogram faces where the parallel lines constrain the quasi-static elastic response. In this work, crease patterns composed of more general trapezoid faces are considered and their low-energy linear response is explored. Deformations of such origami tessellations are modeled as linear isometries that do not stretch individual panels at the small scale yet map to non-isometric changes of coarse-grained fundamental forms that quantify how the effective medium strains and curves at the large scale. Two distinct mode shapes, a rigid breathing mode and a nonrigid shearing mode, are identified in the continuum model. A specific example, which we refer to as Arc-Morph origami, is presented with analytical expressions for its deformations in both the discrete and continuous models. A developable specimen is fabricated and tested to validate the analytical predictions. This work advances the continuum modeling of origami tessellations as effective media with the incorporation of more generic faces and ground states, thereby enabling the investigation of novel designs and applications. The authors investigate the mechanical behavior of origami tessellations composed of trapezoid faces, which are more general but less studied compared to parallelogram faces. They develop analytical expressions for the deformation modes and test the model’s validity through laboratory scale experiments.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Large-scale additive manufacturing of optimally-embedded spinodal material architectures

  Additive manufacturing · 2025-02-20 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  We present a synergistic methodology to design large-scale 3D-printed structures based on a multi-material topology optimization formulation, which leads to the realization of three-dimensional hierarchical structures with spatially oriented non-periodic spinodal microstructures. The inherent characteristics of these unstructured architectures allow the design of optimized layouts with smooth transitions of spinodal material classes, accounting for varying porosity and orientation. The design and manufacturing processes are bridged by a topology-by-material optimization approach, in which the iterative process preserves the macro-scale continuity, while the microstructural topological space is optimized by a suitable distribution of multiple spinodal architected materials. To illustrate both the design and the manufacturing processes, we leverage the features of a large-scale water jetting powder-bed 3D printing technology, which makes use of aggregates obtained from powdered stone-like materials and magnesium-based binders. The optimized model is transferred to the printer by means of a voxel-based generation strategy. The approach, exemplified by means of several numerical simulations and physical 3D-printed samples, connects design conceptualization, material properties at different length scales, and the complex process of additively manufacturing load-bearing structures in a large-scale framework.

  PublisherDOI

• Simplifying the Fold-and-One-Cut Problem: A Pedagogical Approach for Origami Engineering Education

  Lecture notes in mechanical engineering · 2025-10-30

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Homogenization of origami-based lattices

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Modular chiral origami metamaterials

  Nature · 2025-04-23 · 112 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• GOALI: Building Engineering Through Topology Optimization

  NSF · $188k · 2015–2017

• GOALI: Building Engineering Through Topology Optimization

  NSF · $300k · 2013–2016

• Collaborative Research: Mechanics of Optimal Biomimetic Torene Plates and Shells with Ultra-high Genus

  NSF · $307k · 2024–2026

• Polygonal and Polyhedral Elements as a New Computational Paradigm to Study Soft Materials

  NSF · $400k · 2014–2016

• Tunable Tensegrity Structures and Metamaterials

  NSF · $660k · 2024–2027

Frequent coauthors

• Eshan Dave

  University of New Hampshire

  217 shared

• Robert H. Dodds

  Longmont United Hospital

  195 shared

• Marek‐Jerzy Pindera

  192 shared

• Fernando A. Rochinha

  189 shared

• Linfeng Chen

  Sichuan Agricultural University

  105 shared

• William G. Buttlar

  67 shared

• Linfeng Chen

  38 shared

• Emílio Carlos Nelli Silva

  Universidade de São Paulo

  34 shared

Education

• DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, Civil and Enviromental Engineering

  Cornell University

  1995

• MASTER OF SIENCE, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

  Cornell University

  1993

• MASTER OF SIENCE, Civil Engineering, with Honors

  Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro

  1988

• BACHELOR OF SCIENCE, Civil Engineering

  University of Brasilia (UnB), Brazil

  1985

Awards & honors

• Academician, US National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
• Academician, Academia Europaea, The Academy of Europe
• Academician, European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA)
• Theodore von Karman Medal, ASCE
• Ted Belytschko Medal, Applied Mechanics Division, ASME