2020 Excellence in Research Prize and Medal Recipient - Namas Chandra

Namas Chandra, a distinguished professor of biomedical engineering who explores the intersection of mechanics and biology, is a pioneer in the field of blast-induced brain injuries and associated neurotraumas, as well as methods to protect against them.

Chandra focuses on fundamental questions about these potentially life-changing traumas, such as whether soldiers exposed to multiple blasts sustain brain injuries and become susceptible down the road to other neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. He has recently demonstrated conclusively, for the first time, that pure shock waves can cause concussions and that repeated exposures to them do pose serious risk factors for these diseases.

In other discoveries, he has determined that brain injuries caused by blasts are diffuse, setting them apart from the more localized traumas sustained in car accidents, and may compromise the organ’s protective shield, the blood- brain barrier, and induce neuroinflammation.

Chandra also examines current protective measures — helmets, body armor, vehicles and combat care — to assess their ability to prevent brain injuries. He has shown, for example, that certain helmets without tight padding can increase a soldier’s vulnerability from a newly identified effect he terms “shock focusing.” He is examining biomechanical and biochemical mechanisms to promote brain safety, as well as innovative diagnostic methods and therapies to advance treatment. He is currently exploring, for example, the use of a peptide hormone on blast- induced hearing loss.

In his Center for Injury Bio-Mechanics, Materials and Medicine, which is humming with undergraduate and graduate student researchers, Chandra conducts many of his experiments in a laboratory-scale shock tube that can exactly simulate blasts in the field set off by hand-held grenades, pipe and truck bombs. His patented equipment, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, is considered a gold-standard testing device and has been replicated at the U.S. Army Proving Grounds in Aberdeen to test future products for soldiers.

With neurobiologist Farzan Nadim, Chandra co-founded NJIT’s Institute for Brain and Neuroscience Research to advance a multipronged approach toward understanding neural circuits and their disruption. While conducting fundamental research, IBNR brain injury specialists work closely with clinicians in the region and throughout the country on a variety of therapies, including neurorehabilitation.

Over the last seven years since joining NJIT, Chandra has been awarded nearly $7 million in external research funding. He has published more than 233 articles in refereed publications, including 122 in archival journals.

In 1997, Chandra was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering for his contribution to composite mechanics. Nearly a decade later, he was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering for his work on the biomechanics of blast-induced brain injury and his insights into improved protections and therapies.