Members of the F² Lab

Claire Acevedo, PhD

Claire Acevedo is a Associate Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) department. Dr. Acevedo's research concentrates on the mechanical behavior of skeletal tissues and their biological responses to aging and metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. Her studies span from the cellular level to millimeter-length scales, utilizing advanced multiscale experiments. Her work has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Harold M. Frost Young Investigator Award (ASBMR, 2017), the John Haddad Young Investigator Award (ASBMR, 2018), the NSF Career Award in 2021, and the Alice Jee Award (ORS, 2022).

After earning her PhD at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Prof. Acevedo secured both early and advanced postdoctoral fellowships, enabling her to conduct research at UC Berkeley and later at UC San Francisco. In 2018, she established her own research laboratory, the Fracture and Fatigue of Skeletal Tissues Lab, at the University of Utah. In August 2023, she was hired at UC San Diego.

Email: csacevedo@ucsd.edu

In Kyu Lee

In Kyu Lee is a doctoral student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. He earned B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and completed M.S. in Bioengineering at the University of Kansas, where he focused on medical imaging and CFD. With professional experience in the medical AI industry, he integrates deep learning and quantitative analysis of medical imaging to study microstructure and bone diseases. Outside of his academic pursuits, In Kyu enjoys playing basketball, tennis, and the piano.

Email: kl002@ucsd.edu

Shangaya Touraivane

Shangaya Touraivane is a French Ph.D. student from Université Paris-Saclay joining the lab as a visiting graduate student from March to December 2025. He graduated from the Mechanical Engineering department of Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay in 2023 and has two M.S., one in Mechanics of Materials and the other in Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering for teaching purposes. Shangaya will be studying the alterations caused by Dentinogenesis Imperfecta (DI) on the 3D microstructure of dentin and how they affect the toughness of the tissue. Shangaya enjoys spending his spare time cooking, reading, hiking and taking care of animals.

Email: stouraivane@ucsd.edu