Rodrigo Telles joined LLNL as an ACP Scholar in the Fall of 2020. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Professor Jennifer Lewis’s group at Harvard University and is a collaborator with LLNL in an LDRD project on Shape Changing of Responsive Elastomer Structures (SCoRES). His research interests include leveraging hierarchy and local structure control afforded by additive manufacturing for emergent properties and new applications. His thesis work focuses on developing 3D architected liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) with programmed director alignment. In 2020 he received a M.S. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University. From 2015-2016, Rodrigo worked both as a product development scientist at Armor All® developing colloidal suspensions for automotive cleaning; and as a research scientist at Crop Enhancement formulating a novel, nontoxic, biodegradable plant coating to replace the use of hazardous pesticides. In 2015 he received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of California, Berkeley. His undergraduate research was conducted in Professor Clayton Radke’s group on the development of novel soft-contact lenses and transport phenomena models to assess ocular health.

Ph.D. Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

M.S. Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California

8. Telles, R., Mancini, J. A., Barrera, JL., Simoes, M., Porcinucla, D. P., Bischoff, A., Roach, D. J., Leguizamon, S. C., Lee, E., Cook, C. C., and Lewis, J. A. “Architected liquid crystal elastomer lattices with programmable energy absorption.” Advanced Materials 37.35 (2025): 2420048

7. Ford, M. J., Telles, R., Porcincula, D. P., Reyes, C., Paul, S., Hendrix, I., Hawkes, E., Read de Alaniz, J., Cook, C. C., and Lee, E. “Versatile liquid crystal elastomer formulations using chemistry and processing for advanced manufacturing.” ACS Applied Engineering Materials 3.5 (2025): 1389-1398

6. Ng, A., Telles, R., Riley, K. S., Lewis, J. A., Cook, C. C., Lee, E., and Yang, S. “Coaxial direct ink writing of cholesteric liquid crystal elastomers in 3D architectures.” Advanced Materials 37.10 (2025): 2416621.

5. Telles, R., Kotikian, A., Freychet, G., Zhernenkov, M., Wąsik, P., Yavitt, B. M., Barrera, JL., Cook, C. C., Pindak, R., Davidson, E. C., and Lewis, J. A. “Spatially programmed alignment and actuation in printed liquid crystal elastomers.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122.3 (2025): e2414960122

4. Herman, J. A., Telles, R., Cook, C. C., Leguizamon, S. C., Lewis, J. A., Kaehr, B., White, T. J., and Roach, D. J. “Digital light process 3D printing of magnetically aligned liquid crystalline elastomer free-forms.” Advanced Materials 36.52 (2024): 2414209.

3. Ford, M. J., Porcincula, D. H., Telles, R., Mancini, J. A., Wang, Y., Rizvi, M. H., Loeb, C. K., Moran, B. D., Tracy, J. B., Lewis, J. A., Yang, S., Lee, E., and Cook, C. C. “Movement with light: Photoresponsive shape morphing of printed liquid crystal elastomers.” Matter 7.3 (2024): 1207-1229.

2. Telles, R., Dursch, T., Li, W., Lin, M., and Radke, C. J. “Human Tear-Production Rate from Closed-Eye Schirmer-Strip Capillary Dynamics.” Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects 521 (2017): 61-68.

1. Liu, D. E., Cerretani, C., Telles, R., Scheer, A.P., Sciamanna, S., Bryan, P. F., Radke, C. J., and Prausnitz, J. M. "Analysis of countercurrent membrane vapor extraction of a dilute aqueous biosolute." AIChE Journal 61.9 (2015): 2795-2809.

2025 LLNL Director’s Excellence in Publication Award