Professor Cazacu’s research expertise is in theoretical and computational mechanics aimed at finding new ways to extend the range of applications of existing materials and virtual designing of new materials/microstructures for enhanced performance. She is world-renowned for contributions to constitutive modeling of anisotropy in non-linear deformation, damage and fracture with applications ranging from non-traditional manufacturing processes to impact, virtual testing and evaluation of hypersonic systems. Her anisotropic plasticity models are integrated into advanced general-purpose multi-physics simulation commercial and government finite-element software.