Shashank Priya is Professor and Vice President for Research in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. His research is focused on multifunctional materials, energy harvesting, and bio-inspired systems. His research group is interdisciplinary, consisting of materials scientists, physicists, mechanical engineers, roboticists, and electrical engineers, which allows the group to conduct integrated research addressing several aspects at the material, component, and system level. He is the founder and chair of the Annual Energy Harvesting Society Meeting, he is a member of the Honorary Chair Committee for the International Workshop on Piezoelectric Materials and Applications (IWPMA), and he is a fellow of the American Ceramic Society.