Jessica Jeneve Zamarripa

B.S. in Electrical Engineering (2020) – Texas A&M University

M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering (2022) – Texas A&M University

Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering (2026) – Texas A&M University

Jessica Jeneve Zamarripa successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation, “Deposition and Electrochemical Studies Toward High‑Cycle Liquid‑Metal–Based Circuits Applied to Shape Memory Material Substrates,” in December 2025 through the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University. She previously earned her Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering, along with a professional certificate in Materials, Informatics, and Design, from Texas A&M University in December 2022. In May 2020, she graduated as a National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges Scholar with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Mathematics, also from Texas A&M University. Her research contributions in the M²AESTRO Lab focused on liquid metal–based circuits and sensors designed to investigate the relationship between electrical response and mechanical deformation. She developed a controlled deposition method to reproducibly pattern eutectic gallium–indium (EGaIn) onto both polymeric and metallic shape memory materials. In parallel, she established an electrochemical anodization process to provide electrical insulation on metallic shape memory substrates. Together, these advances enabled fundamental studies of coupled electromechanical and thermos-electro-mechanical behavior during actuation.

Experience:

• Pathways Graduate Student Trainee – NASA Johnson Space Center (January 2026 – May 2026)
• Pathways Graduate Student Trainee – NASA Johnson Space Center (May 2025 – August 2025)
• Pathways Graduate Student Trainee – NASA Johnson Space Center (January 2024 – May 2024)
• Graduate Student Intern – NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (June 2022 – August 2022)
• Graduate Student Intern – Air Force Research Laboratory (May 2021 – August 2021)
• Graduate Student Intern – Air Force Research Laboratory (June 2020 – August 2020)

Fellowships:

• The Department of Defense National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, 2022 AFOSR DoD NDSEG Fellow
• The National GEM Consortium, GEM Fellow
• Air Force Research Laboratory (ARFL) Minority Leadership Program (MLP) and Texas A&M Data‑Enabled Discovery and Design of Energy Materials (D3EM)

Publications:

• Darren Hartl, Jacob Mingear, Brent Bielefeldt, John Rohmer, Jessica Zamarripa, and Alaa Elwany, “Towards High-Frequency Shape Memory Alloy Actuators Incorporating Liquid Metal Energy Circuit”, Shape Memory and Superelasticity Advances in Science and Technology, December. 2017.
• Darren Hartl, Jacob Mingear, Brent Bielefeldt, John Rohmer, Jessica Zamarripa, and Alaa Elwany,
  Towards High-Frequency Shape Memory Alloy Actuators Incorporating Liquid Metal Energy
  Circuit, ASNE 2018 SMART Materials Conference, September 2018.
• Jacob Mingear, Brady K Allen, Jessica J Zamarripa, Darren J Hartl,”Internal Liquid Metal Channels to Enable High Power Additively Manufactured SMA Actuators.” SMST2022. ASM International, 2022.