The aim of his group is to enable the creation of flexible structures, mechanisms, and materials that achieve extraordinary capabilities via the deformation of their constituent compliant elements. Prior to coming to UCLA, Jonathan was a postdoc at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 2010 to 2013 and received his Ph.D. (2010), Masters (2007), and Bachelors (2005) degrees all in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was honored by President Barack Obama at the White House with a DOE nominated PECASE award for his work involving the design and fabrication of architectured materials. Additionally, he is a recipient of ASME's 2016 Freudenstein/General Motors Young Investigator Award, the V.M. Watanabe Excellence in Research Award, and the Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching Award.