Douglas Adams

Douglas E. Adams is the Daniel F. Flowers Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vice Dean of the School of Engineering, and Executive Director of the Institute of National Security at Vanderbilt University. He holds appointments as Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Adams earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 2000, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997, and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1994. Prior to joining Vanderbilt in 2013 as Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, he served at Purdue University as Kenninger Professor of Renewable Energy and Power Systems, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Founding Director of the Purdue Center for Systems Integrity. He founded and co-directs the Laboratory for Systems Integrity and Reliability (LASIR) at Vanderbilt, which employs multi-modal sensing and analytics to assess material and machine degradation in infrastructure critical to energy, security, and transportation.

Adams specializes in nonlinear structural dynamics and vibrations, structural health monitoring, diagnostics, damage prognosis, and noise and vibration control, with applications in aerospace, automotive, energy systems such as wind turbines and batteries, and defense platforms. He has authored a textbook on structural health monitoring, 72 archival journal papers, 164 conference papers, and several book chapters, including 'Time and Frequency Domain Nonlinear System Characterization for Mechanical Fault Identification' (Nonlinear Dynamics, 2007) and 'Using impact modulation to quantify nonlinearities associated with bolt loosening with applications to satellite structures' (Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 2019). His research has produced 13 patents, graduated 14 Ph.D. and 29 M.S. students, and secured $29 million from 93 federal and industrial contracts. Adams serves as Managing Editor of Structural Health Monitoring and has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2002), ASME Fellowship (2011), AAAS Fellowship (2019), DeMichele Award from the Society for Experimental Mechanics (2009), U.S. Army Technical Medal of Achievement (2006), and multiple teaching awards including the Purdue Murphy Award (2004). He has delivered numerous keynote addresses and holds membership on the Springer Nature U.S. Research Advisory Council.

Professional Email: douglas.adams@vanderbilt.edu