Tel: 01865 617714
College: St Cross College
Location: Old Road Campus Research Building, Oxford OX3 7DQ
Professor Johannes Weickenmeier is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Science and is a Fellow of St. Cross College since 2024. He is part of the Podium Institute and leads the efforts on Brain Health. He obtained his PhD from the ETH Zurich in 2015 and trained as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University for three years. He then joined Stevens Institute of Technology as an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering from 2018-2024. His area of expertise is the design of theoretical and computational models to simulate and predict the multiphysics behavior of living systems with a particular focus on the brain.
His group aims to understand the most prevalent damage mechanisms associated with healthy aging, neurodegenerative, and traumatic brain injury with the goal to facilitate early diagnosis of abnormal brain changes. Johannes is also the founding member of the Center for Neuromechanics at Stevens in 2019 and served as its Director from 2022-2024. He received the Stevens Employee Recognition Award for Student-Centricity in 2022 for his extensive efforts to promote undergraduate student research and was recently awarded the National Science Foundation Career Award in 2024.
To learn more, please visit www.weickenmeierlab.com.
- Experimental Continuum Mechanics Mechanics of Soft Materials
- Computational Multiscale and Multiphysics Mechanics
- Longitudinal Image Registration
- Neuromechanics of Aging, Injury, and Neurodegenerative Diseases
Visit our website to learn more – www.weickenmeierlab.com
Multiphysics Continuum Modelling of Brain Aging
We aim to predict cerebral atrophy to compare brain shape changes in healthy and accelerated aging.
Experimental Characterization of Periventricular Tissues
We develop experimental protocols to measure temporal and spatial gradients in the mechanical properties of periventricular tissues.
Longitudinal Image Registration
We use nonlinear image registration to quantify brain shape changes from longitudinal image data.
Please refer to Google Scholar for a complete list of our publications.
High impact papers published to date:
- Blinkouskaya et al. Brain aging mechanisms with mechanical manifestations. Mechanisms of Ageing And Development 2021; 200:111575 (pdf)
- Blinkouskaya and Weickenmeier. Brain shape changes associated with cerebral atrophy in healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering 2021; 146:64 (pdf)
- Caçoilo et al. 3D finite-element brain modeling of lateral ventricular wall loading to rationalize periventricular white matter hyperintensity locations. Engineering With Computers 2022; 38:3939–3955 (pdf)
- Visser et al. Peak ependymal cell stretch overlaps with the onset locations of periventricular white matter lesions. Scientific Reports 2021; 11:1–12 (pdf)
- Weickenmeier et al. Brain stiffness increases with myelin content. Acta Biomaterialia 2016; 42:265–272 (pdf)
- Weickenmeier et al.. A physics-based model explains the prion-like features of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Journal of the Mechanics And Physics of Solids 2019; 124:264–281 (pdf)
- Weickenmeier et al. Multiphysics of Prionlike Diseases: Progression and Atrophy. Physical Review Letters 2018; 121:158101 (pdf)
- Weickenmeier et al. Brain stiffens post mortem. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials 2018; 84:88–98 (pdf)
- Weickenmeier et al. The mechanical importance of myelination in the central nervous system. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials 2017; 76:119–124 (pdf)
- Weickenmeier et al. Magnetic resonance elastography of the brain: A comparison between pigs and humans. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials 2018; 77:702–710 (pdf)
- Weickenmeier et al. The mechanics of decompressive craniectomy: Personalized simulations. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics And Engineering 2017; 314:180–195 (pdf)
- Weickenmeier et al. Suction based mechanical characterization of superficial facial soft tissues. Journal of Biomechanics 2015; 48:4279–4286 (pdf)
We are always looking for new DPhil students and are happy to host (international) visiting students for thesis projects! Check out our Open Positions page for additional information: LINK
Contact Prof. Weickenmeier to inquire about available projects: johannes.weickenmeier@eng.ox.ax.uk
- 06/2024 National Science Foundation CAREER Award
- 04/2022 Employee Recognition Award for Student-Centricity from Stevens Institute of Technology