Ellen Marie Arruda is an American mechanical engineer known for her research on the mechanical properties of polymers and on tissue engineering, with applications including the design of improved football helmets,[1] artificial tooth enamel that can withstand high-shock and high-vibration environments,[2] and nanolayered composite materials that are lightweight, as strong as steel, and transparent.
[3] The Arruda–Boyce model for the behavior of rubber-like polymers is named for her and her doctoral advisor Mary Cunningham Boyce, with whom she published it in 1993.
[7] Her dissertation, Characterization of the Strain Hardening Response of Amorphous Polymers, was supervised by Mary Cunningham Boyce.
[6] She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2017 "for pioneering research in polymer and tissue mechanics and their application in innovative commercial products".
[5] She was the 2018 winner of the James R. Rice Medal of the Society of Engineering Science, "for substantial contributions to the mechanics of engineering polymers and biological materials, with both fundamental and applied impact",[9] the 2019 winner of the Nadai Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers,[10] and the 2023 winner of the American Society of Biomechanics Borelli award which recognizes outstanding career accomplishment.