Prof. Katia Bertoldi is the recipient of the Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award from ASME and a Journal of Applied Mechanics Paper Award, both in 2014. This AMR audio interview explores her professional development, experiences, and insights as a student and later academic researcher and mentor, and describes her contributions to the accidental and purposeful invention of engineered materials with local structural properties that govern macroscopic material response, with applications to energy dissipation, energy focusing, and wave guiding.