Manning is married to William Wylie and has two children.[3]
Research
As a graduate student, Manning studied the behaviors and properties of disordered solids and glasses under the mentorship of Jean Carlson. Among other findings, she described how effective temperature is an important determinant of material failure and strain localization, with potential applications for a wide range of amorphous materials.[4]
After earning her Ph.D., Manning expanded her research on amorphous and granular solids to include biological cells, noting that many types of tissues behave as though they were glassy solids.[5] Manning has developed a model describing the relationship between cell adhesion and cortical tension as a determinant for embryonicsurface tension.[6] Her ongoing research modeling the relationship between cell shape and jamming leading to tissue rigidity has implications for cell migration in metastatic cancer, wound healing, embryogenesis, and asthma.[7][8][9][10][11] In addition, Manning has continued to explore the dynamics of conventional disordered solids.[12][13][14] In 2018, Manning was named by Science News as one of 2018's 10 scientists to watch.[15]
^Merkel, Matthias; Manning, Lisa (2017). "A geometrically controlled rigidity transition in a model for confluent 3D tissues". New Journal of Physics. 20 (2): 022002. arXiv:1706.02656. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/aaaa13. S2CID3867697.
^Merkel, Matthias; Manning, Lisa; Schwarz, J. M; Manning, M. Lisa (2013). "Energy barriers govern glassy dynamics in tissues". Soft Matter. 10 (12): 1885–90. arXiv:1308.3891. doi:10.1039/c3sm52893f. PMID24652538.