Rate My Professor Karen Daniels

Karen Daniels is a Distinguished Professor of Physics at North Carolina State University. She earned her BA in Physics from Dartmouth College in 1994, taught high school science at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, New York from 1994 to 1997, and received her PhD in Physics from Cornell University in 2002. After her doctorate, Daniels served as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Physics at Duke University from 2002 to 2005. She joined the faculty at North Carolina State University in 2005 as an Assistant Professor, advancing to Associate Professor in 2011, Professor and University Faculty Scholar in 2015, and Distinguished Professor in 2021. Daniels has held visiting appointments, including as a Visiting Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, Germany from 2011 to 2012 supported by an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, and as Visiting Faculty at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore supported by a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship for Academic and Professional Excellence in 2023.

Daniels leads the Daniels Lab, which conducts experiments on the non-equilibrium and nonlinear dynamics of granular materials, fluids, gels, and disordered metamaterials, often integrated with theoretical models. This research addresses how failure occurs, non-trivial patterns emerge, and transitions between behavioral classes are controlled, offering insights into biological and geological systems, industrial applications, and climate change responses. Key publications include "Particle Scale Anisotropy Controls Bulk Properties in Sheared Granular Materials" (Physical Review Letters, 2025), "Dilatancy and its coupling to the kinematics in sheared granular media" (Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2025), "Micromechanics of Compressive and Tensile Forces in Partially Bonded Granular Materials" (Physical Review Letters, 2026), and "Soft matter physics of the ground beneath our feet" (Soft Matter, 2024). She has earned awards such as the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award (2007), LeRoy and Elva Martin Award for Teaching Excellence (2013), Equity for Women Award (2015), American Physical Society Fellowship (2018), American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship (2021), and Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship (2023). Daniels previously chaired the American Physical Society Division of Soft Matter, served as Divisional Associate Editor for Physical Review Letters from 2017 to 2023, and currently sits on the Editorial Board of Annual Reviews of Condensed Matter Physics.