Named chair of the Rutgers School of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 2023, Assimina (Mina) Pelegri continues to serve as a professor in the department where she was instrumental in establishing the school’s aerospace engineering degree program. She is also a founder and current director of Rutgers’ Advanced Materials and Structures and Tissue Characterization and Modeling Laboratories.
Pelegri’s research interests include composite materials design, modeling, and characterization, with current research projects spanning super-hard materials’ response on ballistic loads to modeling neuron degradation during Alzheimer’s and traumatic brain injury using hybrid numerical/AI approaches. Pelegri is a recipient of an NSF CAREER award and funding from multiple federal and state agencies.
She is a fellow and active member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). She is serving as an editor of leading peer journals such as the Journal of the Engineering and Science of Medical Diagnostics and Therapy (JESMDT), and in the past in the Journal of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (JAIAA), and the Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology (JEMT). Currently she is the Chair of the Space Exploration and Habitats Technology Group of ASME, a board member of the Space Propulsion and Power Platform of ASME, and a member of the Mechanical Engineering Department Heads Committee of ASME.
Pelegri’s dedication to her students has been recognized by Rutgers, where she has been named an Outstanding Faculty of the Rutgers School of Engineering and a Rutgers Mentor of the Year. She was recognized as an Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni of Georgia Institute of Technology, was awarded the ASME Gold Medal / Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal, and an invitee to the Frontiers of Engineering from the National Academy of Engineering. She also holds an Amelia Earhart Award from Zonta International and she is a Fulbright scholar.
She earned her Ph.D. and MS degrees in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a MoT degree from its Scheller Business School. She holds an undergraduate degree from Greece’s National Technical University of Athens.