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Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications (2011)

Chapter: Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13157.
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Appendix B

Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

Edwin L. Thomas (NAE), Chair, professor and department head of materials science and engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), carries out research on photonics, phononics, interference lithography and mechanical behavior of microtrusses, polymer physics and engineering of the mechanical and optical properties of block copolymers, liquid-crystalline polymers, and hybrid organic-inorganic nanocomposites. Professor Thomas has a special interest in the area of photonics and the fabrication of polymeric photonic crystals using self-assembly, especially with block copolymers, and holographic interference lithography. For these studies, much emphasis is placed on the understanding of complex relations between the lattice symmetry and optical properties of periodic structures. Another area of particular focus is phononics. Professor Thomas’s group is exploring the way that light and sound propagate in quasi-crystalline photonic and phononic structures. Other major topics in his research are structured polymers. His structured-materials research concentrates on enhancing the ability to fabricate complex structures with characteristic length in submicron and nanometer ranges in order to create materials with superior properties that can be tailored to a particular application. Understanding the influence of composition and processing conditions on the resultant microstructure of polymers and how this determines the properties is the central part of his polymer morphology research. Professor Thomas is also the founding director of MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN), where advanced nanotechnology research seeks to improve the survival of the soldier of the future. The ISN was founded in March 2002 with the help of a $50 million contract from the U.S. Army, and now entering its third 5-year contract, its charge is to pursue a long-range vision for how technology can make soldiers less vulnerable to enemy and environmental threats. The ultimate goal is to create a 21st-century battlesuit that combines high-tech capabilities with light weight and comfort.

Michael F. McGrath, Vice Chair, is the vice president for systems and operations analysis at Analytic Services Inc. (ANSER), a not-for-profit government services organization. He previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, and in that position, he was a strong proponent for improvements in technology transition, modeling and simulation, and testing and evaluation. In prior positions, Dr. McGrath served as the vice president for government business at the Sarnoff Corporation, assistant director for manufacturing at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and director of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Computer-aided Acquisition and Logistics Support (CALS) Program. While at DARPA, Dr. McGrath managed the Affordable Multi-Missile Manufacturing Program and the Agile Manufacturing Program, which developed technologies for distributed engineering and manufacturing processes and teams. He also led DoD’s Research and Development (R&D) planning program Technology for Affordability. He has maintained research interests in information systems, supply chains, and manufacturing technologies. He is a member of the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Board on Manufacturing and Engineering Design, and he chaired the 2002 NRC study Equipping Tomorrow’s Military Force: Integration of Commercial and Military Manufacturing in 2010 and Beyond. Dr. McGrath’s expertise includes defense R&D programs and organizational management, defense acquisition, systems engineering, manufacturing enterprise systems, and life-cycle support. He holds a B.S. in space science and applied physics (1970) and an M.S. in aerospace engineering (1972) from Catholic University and a doctorate in operations research from George Washington University (1985).

Relva C. Buchanan is a professor and former head of ceramics and materials science in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Cincinnati. His

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13157.
×

research focus is on electroceramics materials as components for passive devices and various microelectronics sensing applications. Included are ferroelectric thin-film systems and also core-shell/barrier-layer structures, developed in donor doped BaTiO3ceramics, with superior dielectric and strain properties, of interest for supercapacitor and sensor applications. Dr. Buchanan’s research interests include NiZrO2 and Ni/NiO composite film structures for fuel cell and capacitive electrode systems and thermistor use. Conductive polymer/carbon composite structures for electromagnetic shielding and thermistor and toxic gas detection, as well as low-temperature glasses for thick-film use, are also areas of his ongoing research. Dr. Buchanan is a fellow of the Graduate College, University of Cincinnati; a fellow of the American Ceramic Society; a fellow of the American Society of Metals (International); and a member of the National Institute of Ceramic Engineers. He has served as trustee of the American Ceramic Society and chair of its Programs and Meetings Committee. He is a member of the Ferroelectrics Program Committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and currently serves on several international review committees: the International Panel on Evaluation of Portuguese Materials Science Research, the International Advisory Committee of Electroceramics European Conferences V-VIX, the International Conference on Electroceramics, 2003 through 2009, and the U.S.-Japan conference committee on dielectrics. He has served also on several national review committees, including as chair of the Energy Technology Review Committee, University of Chicago/Argonne National Laboratory, and on the Ohio Science and Technology Council. Dr. Buchanan has authored more than 150 technical and review articles (e.g., in the Journal of Materials Research, Applied Physics Letters, the Journal of the American Ceramics Society, Sensors and Actuators, and others). He has given more than 120 invited talks and more than 100 technical presentations (with his students) and has co-authored or authored six books. His book Ceramic Materials for Electronics: Process, Properties, and Applications (Marcel Dekker, 1991; 3rd ed., 2004) is widely used in the field, as is his book Materials Crystal Chemistry (Dekker, 1997). He teaches courses in materials science, ceramic processing, materials crystal chemistry, functional ceramic devices, electrical ceramics, and glass and glass properties.

Bhanumathi Chelluri is a senior research scientist and program manager at IAP Research, Inc. Dr. Chelluri received her M.S. in physics (1974) and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering (1980) from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. After completing her Ph.D., she worked at the Max-Planck Institute in Germany for 2 years. On returning to the United States, Dr. Chelluri joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in New Jersey in the molecular beam epitaxy and research and development group. In 1989, she joined IAP as program manager of the advanced materials group. She has initiated and worked on a broad range of materials research areas, including metals, ceramics, composites, magnetic materials, thin films, nanomaterials, and semiconductors, with an emphasis on production and production capacity. Her recent focus has been on dynamic processing and production of powder materials using submillisecond-duration dynamic pressures. The process has also been successfully applied to armor-grade materials. Dr. Chelluri is the inventor of the dynamic magnetic powder compaction process. She holds six patents and has four patents pending related to the processing of advanced powder materials. She led numerous development projects as principal investigator, including Applied Technology Programs and Department of Defense and Department of Energy research programs. Dr. Chelluri has authored over 60 publications, of which several are invited feature articles. She has presented numerous invited talks at national and international conferences. Dr. Chelluri is the IAP corporate representative for the Metal Powder Industries Federation and the Edison Welding Institute. She holds professional membership in the following: Metal Powder Industries Federation; the Advanced Particulate Materials Association; the American Society for Metals; the Metals, Minerals and Materials Society; the American Ceramic Society; and the European Powder Metallurgy Association.

Richard A. Haber is a professor of material science and engineering at Rutgers University. Professor Haber is also the director of the Center for Ceramic Research, the oldest active National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center in the United States. Professor Haber also is the manager of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory’s Material Center of Excellence for Ceramics in Lightweight Vehicular Armor at Rutgers. He has been on the faculty of Rutgers since 1984. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Rutgers University. He is a fellow and past vice president of the American Ceramic Society and past president of the Ceramic Manufacturers Council. Professor Haber has written more than 90 papers and presented more than 250 lectures worldwide, on a range of topics including the following: ceramic processing, minerals processing, characterization of ceramic materials, strategic mineral and material utilization, nondestructive analysis, and structure-property relations in armor ceramics.

John Woodside Hutchinson (NAS/NAE) is the Lawrence Professor of Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University. Professor Hutchinson and his collaborators work on problems in solid mechanics concerned with engineering materials and structures. Buckling and structural stability, elasticity, plasticity, fracture, and micromechanics are all relevant research topics. Research activities include efforts to develop a mechanics framework for assessing the durability of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) and the development of a fracture approach for structures subject to intense dynamic loads. Industrial efforts are under way to exploit these ceramic coatings, which are

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13157.
×

now widely used in aircraft and power generation turbines to shield engine blades and essentially all metal surfaces from high temperatures, thus enabling even higher operating temperatures. The technological challenge is to enhance the lifetime of the coatings under more severe operating conditions given their tendency to delaminate and spall. The effort involves collaboration with a broad community of engineers and material scientists who are actively exploring all aspects of TBCs. A wide range of efforts are also under way to develop new concepts for metallic structures with enhanced blast resistance (fracture now generally limits the maximum sustainable load). Professor Hutchinson’s current work in this area is focused on the development of fracture models that can be employed in structural analysis codes to predict both the onset of failure and its progression.

Gordon R. Johnson is a program director in the Engineering Dynamics Department at Southwest Research Institute. Previously he was a chief fellow at Honeywell/ATK and a senior scientist at Network Computing Services/Army High Performance Computing Research Center. He received a B.S., M.S.C.E., and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1964, 1966, and 1974, respectively. Dr. Johnson is the originator and principal developer of the EPIC computer code, which has been used extensively by the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and industry for computations involving high-velocity impact and explosive detonation. He has developed numerous algorithms for finite elements, meshless particles, contact, and linking of particles to elements. He has also been a developer of the Johnson-Cook strength and failure models for metals, the Johnson-Holmquist models for ceramics (JH-1 and JH-2), the Johnson-Holmquist-Beissel model for ceramics with a phase change, the Holmquist-Johnson-Cook model for concrete, and the Johnson-Beissel-Cunniff models for fabrics and composites. He is the author of numerous publications, served on the National Research Council’s Committee on the Safety and Security of Commercial Spent Fuel Storage, and received the H.W. Sweatt Award from Honeywell and the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Hypervelocity Impact Society.

Satish Kumar is professor of materials science and engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his M.Sc. degree in physics in 1975 from the University of Roorkee, India (now I.I.T. Roorkee) and his Ph.D. in the field of fiber science in 1979 from the Textile Technology Department at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. He obtained his post-doctoral experience in polymer science and engineering under the tutelage of Professor R.S. Stein at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He conducted research as a foreign collaborator at C.E.N.G. at Grenoble, France, a laboratory of the Atomic Energy Commission of France, using small-angle scattering studies to understand the structure of ion-containing polymers. From 1984 to 1989, Dr. Kumar was associated with the polymer branch at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, as an onsite contractor through Universal Energy Systems and subsequently through the University of Dayton Research Institute. At the Air Force Research Laboratory, the focus of his research was structure, processing, and properties of rigid-rod polymeric fibers, as well as structural studies of carbon fibers and thermosetting and thermoplastic resins. His current research and teaching interests are in the areas of structure, processing, and properties of polymers, fibers, and composites, with an emphasis on polymer-carbon nanotube nanocomposites. Dr. Kumar has conducted fiber processing and structure-property studies on a broad range of polymers, including synthetic and natural polymers, as well as carbon fibers. His areas of research interest also include the ability of carbon nanotubes to nucleate polymer crystallization as well as their ability to template polymer orientation. He is also conducting research on carbon-based electrochemical supercapacitors, with the objective of enhancing their energy density. He serves on the editorial advisory boards of several journals in the field.

Robert M. McMeeking (NAE), a professor of mechanical engineering and professor of materials, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), earned a B.Sc. (with first class honors) in mechanical engineering at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1972, finishing first in his class of mechanical engineers. He then completed his M.S. and Ph.D. in solid mechanics at Brown University under the supervision of Professor James R. Rice, with dissertations on finite deformation plasticity methods for finite elements and ductile crack tip blunting in metals. He was at Stanford University for 2 years working on metal forming problems with Professor Erastus H. Lee. After 7 years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on the faculty of the Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Department, Professor McMeeking went to UCSB in 1985 as a professor of materials and of mechanical and environmental engineering. He was chair of the Department of Mechanical and Environmental Engineering at UCSB in 1992-1995 and again during 1999-2003. He has written more than 220 scientific papers on such subjects as plasticity, fracture mechanics, computational methods, glaciology, tough ceramics, composite materials, materials processing, powder consolidation and sintering, ferroelectrics, structural evolution, nanotribology, actuating structures, blast and fragment protection of structures, fluid structure interactions arising from underwater blast waves, and the mechanics of the cell and its cytoskeleton. In 1983, Professor McMeeking was a Science and Engineering Research Council Senior Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University. In 1995-1996 he was a visiting professor at Cambridge University and was honored as a visiting scholar at Pembroke College. He was Southwest Mechanics Lecturer in 1988, and a plenary lecturer at the Seventh International Congress on Fracture in 1989, and he was honored as a

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13157.
×

Midwest Mechanics Lecturer in 1992-1993 and as the Arthur Newell Talbot Lecturer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007. In 1998 he was elected a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and in 2002 was recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as a highly cited researcher in the fields of materials science and engineering. He was also promoted to fellow of the American Academy of Mechanics in 2002 and in 2004 was given an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award for senior U.S. scientists. Professor McMeeking was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2005 and was given the Brown University Engineering Alumni Medal in 2007. He has served as a reviewer for funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Army Research Office in the United States and for funding agencies of the United Kingdom, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, and Sweden. He is active in consulting for manufacturers of medical devices and other companies on mechanical stress, fatigue life, fracture, and ferroelectric devices. He was associate editor of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Journal of Applied Mechanics, 1987-1993, and is currently editor for the 2002-2012 term. He is an editorial board member for several journals in the fields of solid mechanics and materials and has reviewed for all the major journals in his field. In addition to his appointment at UCSB, Professor McMeeking is Sixth Century Professor of Engineering Materials (part-time) at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland; visiting professor of materials engineering at the University of the Saarland, Germany; and external member of the Leibniz Institute for New Materials, Saarbrücken, Germany.

Nina A. Orlovskaya is an assistant professor of mechanical, materials, and aerospace engineering at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Her research interests lie in the field of ceramics and ceramics composites for various engineering applications. During her research career she has addressed numerous topics both in the processing of ceramics and ceramic composites and in the characterization of materials’ properties. She devoted significant efforts to the development of the hot-pressing technique for the manufacture of B4C, Si3N4, and SiC-based ceramics for armor and cutting-tools applications. Through her manufacturing work she has gained extensive experience not only in hot pressing but also in pressureless sintering of bulk ceramic materials, as well as in magnetron sputtering of the thin films. Recently she has also been working on spark plasma sintering to process B4C, ZrB2 and ReB2 ceramics. One of Dr. Orlovskaya’s major research interests is lightweight, hard, and tough boron-rich ceramic laminates. B4C/B4C–SiC laminates are designed such that the differences in the layers’ compositions lead to the differences in the coefficients of thermal expansion and Young’s moduli of the adjacent layers, thus facilitating the appearance of thermal residual stresses. If properly designed, the thermal residual stresses could bring a significant increase in the mechanical performance of laminates as compared to the traditional particulate B4C–SiC composites. Another topic that Dr. Orlovskaya is currently pursuing is the mechanochemical synthesis of ReB2, OsB2, and IrB2 powders. Additionally, stress-and temperature-altered vibrational properties of Zr(Hf)B2–SiC ceramic composites are under intensive exploration. Dr. Orlovskaya’s interest in materials availability and world production of lightweight materials led her to organize, as director of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop, a workshop entitled “Boron Rich Solids: Sensors for Chemical and Biological Detection, Ultra High Temperature Ceramics, Thermoelectrics and Armor,” held at UCF in 2009. The workshop attracted attention from the international community interested in boron-rich solids, and scientists from the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Japan, Egypt, India, and South Africa presented their research results during the workshop.

Michael Ortiz, the Dotty and Dick Hayman Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Department of Engineering and Applied Science, received a B.S. degree in civil engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. From 1984 to 1995 he held a faculty position in the Division of Engineering at Brown University, where he carried out research activities in the fields of the mechanics of materials and computational solid mechanics. He has been on the faculty at Caltech since 1995 and currently serves as the director of its Department of Energy/Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program Center on High-Energy Density Dynamics of Materials. Professor Ortiz has been a Fulbright Scholar, a Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Scholar at Caltech, a Midwest and Southwest Mechanics Seminar Series Distinguished Speaker, a fellow and an elected member-at-large of the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics, and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Ortiz is the recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists, the International Computational Mechanics Awards for Research, the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics Computational Structural Mechanics Award, the ISI Highly Cited Researcher Award, and the inaugural 2008 Rodney Hill Prize conferred every 4 years by the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. Professor Ortiz has served on the Science and Technology Panel of the University of California’s Office of the President and on the Los Alamos National Laboratory T-Division Review Committee. He currently serves on the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Predictive Science Panel; the Sandia National Laboratories Engineering Sciences External Review Panel; the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Chemistry, Materials, Earth and Life Sciences Directorate Review Committee; and the National Research Council’s Panel for the Evaluation of Quantifica-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13157.
×

tion of Methods and Uncertainty; he chairs the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Engineering Directorate Review Committee. He has been editor of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics of the American Society of Chemical Engineers and of the Journal of Applied Mechanics of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, associate editor of the journal Modeling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering and of theJournal for Computational Mechanics and is currently associate editor of the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids and of the Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis.

Raúl A. Radovitzky, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is also the associate director, Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. Professor Radovitzky was born in Argentina and educated at the University of Buenos Aires, where he obtained his civil engineering degree in 1991. He received his S.M. in applied mathematics from Brown University in 1995 and his Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1998. He joined MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2001 as the Charles Stark Draper Assistant Professor. Professor Radovitzky’s research interests are in the development of advanced concepts and material systems for blast protection. To this end, his research group develops theoretical and computational descriptions of the blast event and its effects on structures and humans, including advanced computational methods and algorithms for large-scale simulation. The resulting models help to improve the understanding of the various physical components of the problem and thus to design protective systems. Professor Radovitzky’s educational interests include computational mechanics, continuum mechanics, aerospace structures, mechanics of materials, numerical methods, and high-performance computing. He is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, International Association of Computational Mechanics, American Academy of Mechanics, Materials Research Society, U.S. Association of Computational Mechanics, and American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Kaliat T. Ramesh is the director of the Center for Advanced Metallic and Ceramic Systems (CAMCS) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University. His degrees include a B.E. in mechanical engineering from Bangalore University (India) in 1982, an Sc.M. in engineering from Brown University in 1985, an Sc.M. in applied mathematics from Brown University in 1987, and a Ph.D. in engineering from Brown University in 1988. Dr. Ramesh was the chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in 1999-2002. He was appointed director of the CAMCS in 2001. His honors and awards include the following: M. Hetényi Award from the Society for Experimental Mechanics, 2006; elected fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2001; William H. Huggins Award for Excellence in Teaching from Johns Hopkins University, 1995; elected member, Pi Tau Sigma, 1994; and best paper, ASME Tribology Division, 1987.

Donald A. Shockey, director of the SRI International Center for Fracture Physics, is an internationally recognized expert in the fracture of materials and structures and an authority on failure under impact and explosive loads. He joined SRI International in 1971 after earning a doctorate in materials science at Carnegie Mellon University and completing a 3-year postdoctoral appointment at the Ernst-Mach-Institut and the Institut für Werkstoffmechanik in Freiburg, Germany. In his 39 years at SRI, he has directed more than 350 research projects for government and industry, many of which involved ballistic testing, modeling, and post-test damage assessment of metals, ceramics, polymers, and fabrics. Inventor of engine fragment barriers for commercial aircraft, he is currently leading problem-solving efforts associated with developing new glass-based materials and new structural designs for more weight-efficient windows on military vehicles. He is also assessing transparent ceramics and novel structural designs for spacecraft windows that more effectively resist damage from hypervelocity impact of micrometeorites and orbital debris. Dr. Shockey’s recent failure-related projects include the following: astronaut gloves—determining how high-strength fabric gets abraded and torn during space walks and what can be done to prevent glove damage; stents for peripheral arteries—devising mechanical tests that mimic loads imposed by blood vessels to enable the design of fracture-resistant stents; failure prognostics—developing and applying advanced fractographic methods to generate the ability to predict the future performance and remaining useful life of aircraft, bridges, and pipelines; and failure analysis—determining the root cause of and providing expert testimony with respect to equipment failures such as rotor hub cracking in a Chilean power plant. Dr. Shockey has written more than 150 technical articles, holds several patents, and serves on the NASA Panel of Materials Experts. He is a fellow of ASM International, the year 2000 recipient of the John S. Rinehart Award for pioneering work in the field of dynamic fracture, and the 2006 recipient of the Murray Medal for excellence in experimental mechanics.

Samuel Robert Skaggs, retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), is a consultant for advanced armor design and evaluation. He has extensive experience in dynamic loading of materials under high strain rate. Dr. Skaggs was the LANL Armor Program manager from 1986 to 1993, assisting in the design of armors for Desert Storm and the Balkans conflict for both ground vehicles and aircraft. He is responsible for the add-on armor for the U.S. Marine Corps Light Armored Vehicle 25 (USMC LAV-25, now called the Stryker) and the cockpit armor for the C-141 Starlifter logistics aircraft flying into and out of Sarajevo. From 1982 to 1986 he served as program manager for the LANL Materials

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13157.
×

by Design program as well as the Fossil Energy program. In 1981-1982 he served at the Department of Energy, evaluating alternative-energy methods for clean coal, coal liquefaction, and coal gasification. Dr. Skaggs earned a Ph.D. in materials science and an M.S. degree in nuclear engineering at the University of New Mexico and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now New Mexico State University). Dr. Skaggs has written more than 60 journal articles and reports in classified and unclassified areas. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Hypervelocity Impact Society, and the American Defense Preparedness Association. He is also a member and founding president of the NMSU Mechanical Engineering Academy and founder of the Ceramics Modeling Working Group (a joint working group of the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and university and nonprofit scientific research organizations) as well as a founding member of the Advisory Council to the Dean of the College of Engineering at NMSU, having served as secretary from its founding until 2010.

Steven G. Wax is a technology consultant specializing in defense research and development (R&D). He supports defense clients in strategic planning and technology innovation across a range of scientific and engineering disciplines, including the physical sciences, materials, biology, biomedical, and mathematics. Prior to holding executive-level positions at Strategic Analysis, Inc., and SRI, International, Dr. Wax spent 35 years working for the Department of Defense as a civilian and a military officer. During that period, he performed and managed government R&D across a broad spectrum of classified and unclassified technology areas. His last government position was as director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a $400-million-per-year office whose technology purview included the physical sciences, materials, mathematics, human effectiveness, and the biological sciences including biological warfare defense. As director, Dr. Wax was responsible for the office’s investment strategy as well as the transition of the Defense Science Office’s technologies to the military. His previous government positions also include deputy director of the Technology Reinvestment Project and an assignment to the National Reconnaissance Office. Dr. Wax is currently a member of the National Materials Advisory Board and past member of the Sandia National Laboratories’ External Review Panel for Materials. He recently served as an external reviewer of the discovery and innovation portfolio of the Office of Naval Research. He is also a member of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Human Effectiveness Directorate’s independent review team and has supported the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Energy in its white paper evaluations. He was the winner of the George Kimball Burgess Memorial Award in 2009. Dr. Wax’s notable technical accomplishments include a major role in the development of the DARPA’s strategic plans for both biology and materials science as well as the co-development of two material sciences program thrusts (Intelligent Processing of Materials and Accelerated Insertion of Materials) that have revolutionized materials processing and insertion. He has also supported work in such diverse areas as ceramics, ceramic composites and fibers, electroactive polymers, materials processing, space materials and systems, advanced batteries, and personnel armor. Dr. Wax holds a Ph.D. in ceramic engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, an M.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, and a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Wax is a retired Air Force officer.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13157.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13157.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13157.
×
Page 115
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13157.
×
Page 116
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13157.
×
Page 117
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2011. Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13157.
×
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Armor plays a significant role in the protection of warriors. During the course of history, the introduction of new materials and improvements in the materials already used to construct armor has led to better protection and a reduction in the weight of the armor. But even with such advances in materials, the weight of the armor required to manage threats of ever-increasing destructive capability presents a huge challenge.

Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications explores the current theoretical and experimental understanding of the key issues surrounding protection materials, identifies the major challenges and technical gaps for developing the future generation of lightweight protection materials, and recommends a path forward for their development. It examines multiscale shockwave energy transfer mechanisms and experimental approaches for their characterization over short timescales, as well as multiscale modeling techniques to predict mechanisms for dissipating energy. The report also considers exemplary threats and design philosophy for the three key applications of armor systems: (1) personnel protection, including body armor and helmets, (2) vehicle armor, and (3) transparent armor.

Opportunities in Protection Materials Science and Technology for Future Army Applications recommends that the Department of Defense (DoD) establish a defense initiative for protection materials by design (PMD), with associated funding lines for basic and applied research. The PMD initiative should include a combination of computational, experimental, and materials testing, characterization, and processing research conducted by government, industry, and academia.

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