Most engineers try to keep things together. Arun Shukla breaks them apart. He shoots bullets, sets off blasts and strikes things with mighty force all in the name of science.

And it’s nothing new for Shukla. For three decades, Shukla has operated a lab at the University of Rhode Island that tests how materials fracture under unusual circumstances.

“I don’t like to do research under normal conditions,” Shukla, 58, says. “It has to be an extreme environment.”

That extreme research brings Shukla national acclaim. Reporters turn to him to explain bridge collapses, and generals ask him to find better ways to defend against bullets and bombs. Last spring, the California Institute of Technology invited him to serve as the Clark B. Millikan Visiting Professor in the aerospace engineering department.

Considered now the preeminent researcher in his field, Shukla has appeared on the Discovery Channel and NBC’s nationally broadcast Today show. And he is more than just a researcher. Shukla shares his knowledge with hundreds of students.

“He’s concerned about helping you learn, helping you do the best that you can,” graduate student Jefferson Wright says.

Shukla never imagined such work when he arrived in New York City from India on New Year’s Eve, 1976. Carrying just $6 in his pocket and a 40-pound suitcase – 20 pounds of clothes and 20 pounds of books – the 22-year-old Shukla had his sights set on earning a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.

He did, working under the guidance of James Dally and George Irwin, who is considered the father of fracture mechanics. Dally would later become dean of the URI College of Engineering and recruit his former student to the school as a professor.

With space at a premium, Shukla found himself setting up a laboratory in the attic of Bliss Hall, where hammocks and mini-fridges implied another use. But three years later when visiting Air Force officers toured his one-room lab, they liked what they saw. Grants soon followed, enabling the facility to move and expand to three rooms. Over the years, research at the lab has led to more than 300 research papers, produced at least nine university professors and more than 80 graduate students.

Some may call that a lot of work, but Shukla has different ideas.

“When you’re doing what you’re feeling good about, you want to do it,” he says.