Daniel Eakins
Fellow by Special Election in Engineering
Daniel Eakins
Biography
Prof Eakins is an experimental physicist working at the interface of "extreme" materials science, shock physics and dynamic measurement science. He leads research on the dynamic behaviour of materials under extreme conditions, combining impact and shock loading with ultrafast diagnostics to study key physical processes relevant to material strength, damage and chemistry across a wide range of engineering materials.
Prof Eakins received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007, after which he was awarded a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In 2010 he joined the Institute of Shock Physics at Imperial College London, serving as its Deputy Director until 2017 at which point he joined the Engineering Science Department at the University of Oxford. He now heads the Impact and Shock Mechanics Laboratory, alongside serving as Director of the Rolls-Royce UTC for Solid Mechanics, and Director of the newly established Oxford Shock Physics Advanced Research Fellow (OxSPARC). He was appointed full professor in 2024, and is an AWE William-Penney Fellow.
Research
Prof Eakins has been PI or Co-I on grants totalling more than £29M, including large grants HexMat Programme Grant (£5M, EP/K034332/1), Cornerstone Prosperity Partnership (£6M, EP/R004951/1), and the AMPLIFI Prosperity Partnership (£6M, EP/X025373/1). He has also been awarded over £6M facility access, and is the principal investigator for the Shock Beamtime Allocation Group at the European Synchrotron Radiation Source. Has supervised 14 DPhil students to completion, with 16 on-course. He has an h-index of 29, and over 2400 citations.
Publications
Prof Eakins has published papers in leading journals of his field, and co-authored articles with a global base of collaborators, principally from the US, UK, and France. His recent publications include the following:
K.F. Chan, N. Bombace, S. Falco, D. Chapman, N. Petrinic, D. Eakins. “Targeted attenuation of spurious reflections in coupled wave propagation simulations,” Comput. Mech. 2026.
J. Threadingham, X. Liang, E. Leggett, L. Smith, J.C.F. Millett, G. Whiteman, V. Pecanha-Antonio, A.T. Boothroyd, D.J. Chapman, D.E. Eakins. “Influence of strain rate and phase history on the spall failure of single and polycrystal tin,” J. Appl. Phys. 139, p 215103, 2026.
Sun, B. Lukic, Y. Chen, Z. Xu, D. Chapman, D. Eakins. “3D micro-mechanics of a CFRP laminate under high-rate and varying temperature loading using digital volume correlation,” Compos. B Eng. 321, p 113693, 2026.
M. Shahsavari, D. Eakins, P Vagovic, H. Soyama, J.C.P Koliyadu, T. Sato, R. Graceffa, A. Mazzolari, S. Birnsteinova, D. Mosko, P. Szeles, J. Ulicny, W. Yashiro, A. Meents. “Experimental investigation of cavitation dynamics at mesoscale and microscale in swirled and non-swirled venturi tubes,” Phys. Fluids 38, p 033335, 2026.
B. Dias, R.L. Doherty, J. Shadbolt, V. Beltran, E. Escauriza, D.J. Chapman, D.E. Eakins, A. Rack, H.W. Doyle, M.G. Gorman. “Pressure amplification in single-stage gas launchers via Mach-stem formation,” J. Appl. Phys. 139, p 155901, 2026.
J.G. Threadingham, X.Liang, E.Leggett, L.C. Smith, J.C.F. Millett, G.Whiteman, V. Pecanha-Antonio, A.T. Boothroyd, D.J. Chapman, D.E. Eakins. “Effects of crystal orientation on the shock properties of single crystal tin,” J. Appl. Phys. 139, p 065902, 2026.
Sun, B. Lukić, K. Liu, D. Sory, M. Lissner, J. Hoffmann, D. Chapman, N. Petrinic, D.E. Eakins. “Role of temperature in the development of micro-scale damage in CFRP laminates through interrupted high-rate loading and synchrotron phase-contrast µ-CT,” Composites Part A 200, p 109284, 2026.