Kendra Erk

Assistant Professor of Materials Engineering

Kendra Erk holds a B.S. in materials engineering from Purdue and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University.

Her past research involved characterizing the bulk rheological and mechanical properties of soft polymer gels and developing new micro-rheometry methods to characterize viscous and elastic rheological properties of fluid interfaces. Her ongoing and future research at Purdue will focus on characterizing the structure-property relationships of soft polymeric materials and complex fluids under strong shear by rheometry and flow-visualization techniques to probe mechanical instabilities (e.g., fracture, shear banding, interfacial slip and friction).