The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has named Notre Dame faculty member Ashley Thrall, Myron and Rosemary Noble Collegiate Professor of Structural Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, to its 2024 class of Fellows.
Election as an Academy Fellow is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors.
Thrall designs modular structures—such as bridges, shelters, and buildings—that can be rapidly erected, relocated, and deployed. She has pioneered a comprehensive approach to kinetic (movable) structures, guiding design concepts from initial development through rigorous experimentation. Her work incorporates techniques such as origami, 3D printing, and cold bending, applied to concrete, advanced composites, and steel.
Thrall’s research, which integrates numerical and experimental methods, has resulted in six issued utility patents. These innovations include deployable, origami-inspired shelters for soldiers as well as modular steel bridge technologies that can be rapidly assembled for disaster relief or to meet immediate infrastructure needs.
Her research has resulted in 48 peer-reviewed journal publications. She has received both national and international recognition through prestigious awards such as the Hangai Prize from the International Association for Shells and Spatial Structures, the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Early Career Faculty Award, as well as being an inaugural AISC Innovation Scholar.
Thrall founded the Kinetic Structures Laboratory, which is dedicated to investigating the behavior, design, and optimization of kinetic civil infrastructure. She also established and chaired the Modular, Rapidly Erectable, and Deployable Structures Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers Structural Engineering Institute.
She received a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Princeton University and joined the Notre Dame faculty in 2011.
Other recent NAI Fellows at Notre Dame include Ed Maginn (2023), Nosang Myung (2022), Gary Bernstein and Hsueh-Chia Chang (2020), and Bert Hochwald (2019).
— Karla Cruise, Notre Dame Engineering