The underlying theme of his research is to enable innovation and design of high-performance materials and devices by exploiting the fundamental connection between material structure and resulting thermomechanical function and reliability. His research group studies the chemistry and molecular structure of materials in bulk form or thin films and their thermo-mechanical behavior, adhesive and cohesive fracture properties, and behavior under complex loading and environmental conditions. Materials include thin-film and layered structures for nanoscience and energy technologies, high-performance laminates, biomaterials and soft tissues.
Dauskardt and his group have worked extensively on integrating new nano and molecular materials into emerging technologies and pioneered quantitative methods for adhesion and cohesion characterization for which he was awarded the prestigious Semiconductor Industry Association University Researcher Award in 2010 for research which has provided substantive and sustained contributions to semiconductor industry science and technology. His research on soft tissues and wound healing has concentrated on establishing a biomechanics framework to understand and control the biological processes that determine the effects of treatments and exposures on damage processes in human skin for which he was awarded the Henry Maso Award for fundamental contributions to the advancement of cosmetic and skin science, and scar formation in healing cutaneous wounds. Experimental studies are complimented with computational and modeling simulations.