James Friend

Biography

James Friend is the Stephen F. and Camilla T. Brauer Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Chair of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Washington University in St. Louis. His work focuses on the discovery, understanding, and application of acoustic phenomena at small scales, with particular emphasis on biomedical technologies. Before joining Washington University, he spent 14 years as a faculty member in Japan and Australia, then returned to the United States as a professor in both the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the Jacobs School of Engineering and the Department of Surgery in the School of Medicine at the University of California San Diego.

Friend currently leads a research group of six doctoral and two master’s students. He has published more than 350 peer-reviewed research works, including 209 journal articles and nine book chapters, and holds 30 granted patents. His research has been supported by more than $37 million in competitive grant funding. He has mentored 42 postgraduate students to completion and supervised 23 postdoctoral researchers. His work has also contributed to several technology ventures: he most recently helped found Latchability, Inc., an infant health diagnostics company, where he serves as Chief Technology Officer; GlideNeuro, an endovascular intervention technology company; and Sonocharge Energy, a rapidly rechargeable battery company that closed its Series A financing in May 2024. 

His honors include the UC San Diego Distinguished Teaching Award in 2021, recognition as a highly cited author by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2020, election as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2018, election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2022, selection as a Keck Fellow from 2018 to 2021, and the 2015 IEEE Carl Hellmuth Hertz Ultrasonics Award.