Natalie Schaal joined the LMU Mechanical Engineering Department as an Assistant Professor in 2018. She teaches courses within the fields of solid mechanics and vibrations, and strives to foster an inclusive and active learning environment. Her research efforts are in the areas of solid mechanics, geophysics, and STEM education. Two of her projects are (1) connecting the characteristics of an earthquake’s nucleation to its observable source properties, and (2) improving persistence and retention in STEM. The first research project involves the differentiation of foreshocks from background seismicity as well as exploring the seismological signatures of different source types, and the second explores both in-class and out-of-class interventions that can increase students’ sense of belonging to their chosen field of study.

Dr. Schaal received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Portland, with minors in Physics and Mathematics. She spent the following year at the University of Stuttgart in Germany on a Fulbright research grant, experimentally investigating wave propagation in multi-wire cables for damage detection methods. At the California Institute of Technology, she completed both her M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, with a minor in Geophysics. Her research focused on developing models of nucleation and dynamic rupture on heterogeneous frictional interfaces and numerically simulating their long-term behavior, with applications to foreshocks.