Mechanical engineering researcher working on multistable structures, soft robotics, and deployable materials, from metamaterials and metafluids to self-deploying concrete construction.
Ph.D. Candidate, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology · Incoming Postdoctoral Researcher, Creative Machines Lab, Columbia University (under the guidance of Prof. Hod Lipson)
About
Ezra Ben-Abu is a direct-track Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, advised by Associate Prof. Amir Gat. His research leverages flow, elasticity, and multistability to design new classes of soft materials and structures, from metafluids that store energy through architected instabilities, to growing soft robots, thin-shell buckling mechanics, and self-deploying reinforced concrete structures for construction. In late 2026 he will join the Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University as a postdoctoral researcher, under the guidance of Prof. Hod Lipson, and his long-term goal is a faculty position at the Technion.
His academic path followed several years in industry: from 2013 to 2020, Ezra headed the installation team at Dr. Glass Ltd., managing technical crews and on-site problem solving, before returning to full-time study. He completed his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering at Afeka College of Engineering, followed directly by an M.Sc. at the Technion, graduating as valedictorian, before continuing onto the direct-track Ph.D. He now regularly shares that path, from glass installer to doctoral researcher, as a guest lecturer in high schools and elementary schools serving underprivileged communities.
His work has resulted in nine peer-reviewed publications, three patent applications, a Research Highlight feature in Nature Cities, and recognitions including the Hershel Rich Technion Innovation Award and the Rothschild, Kalaniyot, and Azrieli fellowships.
Research
Suspensions of multistable elastic capsules enclosing compressible gas, engineered to give fluids new thermodynamic properties, including the ability to capture, store, and release energy at atmospheric conditions, with applications to refrigeration and energy-harvesting cycles.
A self-deploying formwork system built from multistable tubes that transform from a compact factory-assembled unit into a full-scale, steel-reinforced structural mold. It deploys a 2.36 m structure in 14 seconds, toward faster, lower-carbon construction.
Straw-like multistable structures actuated by internal viscous flow, capable of directed 3D growth and maneuvering along predefined paths, with extensions to director-field-guided sheets that morph into complex target shapes from a single fluidic input.
Directed mechanical instability as a fabrication method for multistable twisting microstructures and reprogrammable 1D/3D metamaterials, plus ongoing work framing buckling in thin shells as a generative design language.
Multimodal, multistable morphing catheter concepts and related patent work on multistable bending catheters, applying multistable-element design to minimally invasive medical devices.
Contact-free actuation of multistable metafluids using time-varying magnetic fields, enabling controlled compression, expansion, and motion of unit cells for fluid-like metamaterial applications.
Publications
Self-deploying reinforced concrete structures Nature Cities Research Highlight
Communications Engineering 5, 133 (2026) · doi.org/10.1038/s44172-026-00725-1
Research Highlight: "Self-deploying concrete systems for low-carbon urban construction," Nature Cities
Magnetic control of metafluids for fluid-like applications of metamaterials
Materials Today Physics 59, 101927 (2025) · doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2025.101927
Reprogrammable 3D shapes from 1D metamaterial Top Viewed 2025
Advanced Materials Technologies 10, 2401113 (2024) · doi.org/10.1002/admt.202401113
Fluid-driven director-field design enables versatile deployment of multistable structures Back Cover
Advanced Intelligent Systems 6, 2400179 (2024) · doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202400179
Directed instability as a mechanism for fabricating multistable twisting microstructure Top Viewed 2025
Advanced Engineering Materials 26, 2400070 (2024) · doi.org/10.1002/adem.202400070
Multistable metafluid based energy harvesting and storage
Advanced Materials 35, 2301483 (2023) · doi.org/10.1002/adma.202301483
Growing structure based on viscous actuation of constrained multistable elements
Advanced Materials Technologies 8, 2202184 (2023) · doi.org/10.1002/admt.202202184
Flows in straws: Viscous flows in one-dimensional metamaterial Editors' Suggestion
Physical Review Applied 18, 064077 (2022) · doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.18.064077
A metafluid with multistable density and internal energy states
Nature Communications 13, 1810 (2022) · doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29048-3
Recognition
Conferences
Teaching & service
Fluid Mechanics 1 (TA in-charge, Winter 2022; English TA for the international program, Winters 2024–2026) and Analytical Methods in Mechanical Engineering 1 (English TA for the international program across seven semesters, 2022–2026).
Delivers motivational talks in high schools and elementary schools serving underprivileged socio-economic communities, sharing his personal path from working as a glass installer to a direct Ph.D. track.
Kugel High School · The Democratic School Yavne · Darca-Shifman High School · Kiryat Sharet High School · Navon High School · Merhavim Elementary School
Organized the "Multi-Stable and Origami-based Soft Robots" workshop at RoboSoft 2026 (Kanazawa) and ICRA 2025 (Atlanta), and the "Bi- and Multi-Stability in Soft Robots" workshop at RoboSoft 2023 (Singapore). Session Chair, "Embodied Energy and Actuation II," MRS Fall Meeting 2025 (Boston).
Co-founder and Production Manager (volunteer), "Ha-Hamal Ha-Technology" non-profit organization (2023–2024). Volunteer teacher of Physics and Mathematics in the pre-academic preparatory program at Afeka College of Engineering (2018–202020).