Team Members

Principal Investigator

Tayler S. Hebner

thebner@purdue.edu | google scholar | cv

Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder  (2022)
B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Minnesota Duluth (2019)

Prof. Hebner is an Assistant Professor in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University. She leads a research team focused on the design of stimuli-responsive polymers, leveraging aspects of chemistry, physics, and biology to enable advanced bio-inspired material performance and integration with biological systems. 

Prior to her role at Purdue, Prof. Hebner earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado, working with Prof. Christopher Bowman and Prof. Timothy White on the design and characterization of liquid crystalline polymers and dynamic covalent networks as responsive materials. She then trained as a postdoctoral scholar with Prof. Danielle Benoit in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Oregon, leveraging functional hydrogel materials to promote regenerative tendon healing. 

Graduate Students

Destina Ekingen Genc

Chemical Engineering Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Active hydrogels, polymeric biomaterials, regenerative tendon healing

Miranda Rubio

Chemical Engineering Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Stimuli-responsive and multifunctional polymers, liquid crystal elastomers, polymer mechanics

Undergraduate Students

Caleb Furst

Major: Biomedical Health Sciences

Research interests: Musculoskeletal tissue engineering, polymeric biomaterials, regenerative tendon healing 

Lab Support Staff

Greta

Research interests: qualitative characterization of mechanical properties of polymeric chew toys, observational data collection on bioinspired behaviors (primarily relative to squirrels and rabbits)

Charlie

Research interests: investigation of the effect of nap length on stored energy, analysis of dynamic properties of socks in biological environments - specifically in the digestive system