Integrated Design of Multiscale, Multifunctional Materials and Products

Dr. McDowell joined Georgia Tech in 1983 and holds a dual appointment in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering. He served as the Director of the Mechanical Properties Research Laboratory from 1992-2012. In 2012 he was named Founding Director of the Institute for Materials (IMat), one of Georgia Tech's interdisciplinary Research Institutes charged with fostering an innovative ecosystem for research and education. He has served as Executive Director of IMat since 2013.
His research focuses on the development of physically-based, microstructure-sensitive constitutive models for nonlinear and time-dependent behavior of materials, with emphasis on wrought and cast metals. Topics of interest include finite strain inelasticity and defect field mechanics, microstructure-sensitive computational approaches to deformation and damage of heterogeneous materials, with emphasis on metal fatigue, atomistic and coarse-grained atomistic simulations of dislocations, dynamic deformation and failure of materials, irradiation effects on materials, and multiscale modeling with methods for uncertainty quantification. He has contributed to schemes for computational materials science and mechanics to inform systems design of materials. Applications of current interest span lightweight structural materials, materials for hot sections of aircraft gas turbine engines, titanium alloys, ferritic and austenitic alloys, and nanocrystalline materials, among others. Prof. Carolyn Conner Seepersad is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and General Dynamics Faculty Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. She received a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2004, an MA/BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University in 1998 (as a Rhodes Scholar), and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University in 1996. Dr. Seepersad's research involves the development of methods and computational tools for engineering design and additive manufacturing. Her research interests include simulation-based design of complex systems and materials, design for additive manufacturing, innovation, and environmentally conscious design of products and energy systems.