1 USNCTAM PERSPECTIVES ON MECHANICS IN MEDICINE

Over decades, the Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (TAM) community has developed sophisticated approaches for analyzing the behavior of complex engineering systems. Most of these approaches have targeted systems in the transportation, materials, defense, and energy industries. Applying and further developing engineering approaches for understanding, predicting, and modulating the response of complicated biomedical processes not only holds great promise in meeting societal needs but also poses serious challenges. This report, prepared for the US National Committee on TAM, aims to identify the most pressing challenges in Biological Sciences and Medicine that can be tackled within the broad field of Mechanics. This echoes and complements a number of national and international initiatives aiming at fostering interdisciplinary biomedical research. This report also comments on cultural/educational challenges. Specifically, the report focuses on three major thrusts in which we believe mechanics has and will continue to have a substantial impact: i) Rationally engineering injectable nano/microdevices for imaging and therapy of disease. Within this context, we discus