Maria Chierichetti will join the faculty of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in August 2012.  Maria will receive her PhD from the AE School in the summer of 2012 under the supervision of Prof. Massimo Ruzzene.  Her research deals with identification methods in structural dynamics.  Her thesis, entitled "Combined Analytical and Experimental approaches to Dynamic Component Stress Prediction", makes an important contribution for the development of updating approaches based on experimental measurements of the dynamic response.

While at Georgia Tech, Maria was awarded the Amelia Earhart Fellowship from Zonta International for two consecutive years.  She was also selected as a student representative for the Southern Region of American Helicopter Society in the Lichten Competition.  Her publications include 3 journal papers and 7 conference papers.  She was awarded the SLIDER Fellowship from Georgia Tech's Center of Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) during academic year 2011-2012.

Maria earned her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, Italy, as well as her first M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering.  She received an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from AE at Georgia Tech in 2011.