Energetic Materials

Mr. Mark J. Mezger is Senior Technology Advisor for Energetics Development Initiatives at the US Army Armament Research Development and Engineering Center at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, where he earlier held positions in the Office of the Director of Technology, and the Business Interface Office.
Through the establishment of public-private partnerships, Mr. Mezger created a national nanotechnology network with regional areas of expertise. He also served as RDECOM Nanotechnology Integrated Product Team Chairman. Through his associations with the National Nanotechnology Manufacturing Center in Georgia, Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center technical advisory board, the Lehigh Valley Nanotechnology Network, the Nanotechnology Enterprise Consortium in Missouri, and the Greater Garden State Nanotechnology Alliance, he has established for the Army one of the largest nano particle reactor facilities in North America and is currently involved in applying this technology to explosive and reactive materials.
His ExMT in Technology Management is from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Bachelors of Science degrees in Math-Physics and in Engineering Science are from the SUNY at Buffalo.
Dilhan M. Kalyon holds the Institute Professor Chair at Stevens Institute of Technology and is affiliated jointly with the Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Science and Department of Chemistry, Chemical Biology and Biomedical Engineering. He is also the Founding Director of the Highly Filled Materials Center at Stevens since 1989. Prof. Kalyon has received the International Research award of Society of Plastics Engineers (2008), the Thomas Baron award in fluid-particle systems of American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2008), the Harvey N. Davis Distinguished Teaching Assistant Professor award (1987), Exemplary Research Award (1992), Henry Morton Distinguished Teaching Full Professor award (2000), Honorary M. Eng. degree, honoris causa (1994) and the Davis Memorial award for Research Excellence (2009) from Stevens Institute of Technology, the Founder's award of JOCG Continuous Extrusion and Mixing Group (2004), and various fellowships including DuPont Central Research and Development Fellowship (1997), Exxon Education Foundation Fellowship (1990) and Unilever Education Fellowship (1991). He was elected Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers (2004) and Fellow of American Institute of Chemical Engineering (2006).

Dr. Lori J. Groven is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Prior to this appointment she served as an Assistant Research Faculty in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. She is an experimentalist focused on the combustion, characterization, processing, and improvement of materials ranging from traditional materials to the nanoscale for propulsion and energy storage. Her research has included the study of combustion of nanosized powders to synthesize intermetallic and ceramic materials, small scale propagation of gasless reactions, direct write of biocidal materials, and most recently has focused on additive manufacturing routes for energetic materials, to name a few.? She is the author or co-author of more than 30 peer reviewed publications since 2010.?

Dr. Michelle Pantoya is the J. W. Wright Regents Chair in Mechanical Engineering and a professor at Texas Tech University. Her research focuses on developing new nanoscale energetic materials used for both industrial as well as military applications. Her vision is to promote cleaner, safer and more effective energetic composites through an understanding of their basic combustion behavior. Her advances were recently aired on a segment of the Discovery Channel's Daily Planet entitled Green Ammunition. The news story explains her scientific contributions to remove lead-based materials engrained in most ordnance systems with environmentally safe and more reactive nano-particle formulations. She is making tremendous strides through creating new diagnostic techniques for probing combustion reactions on the nanoscale; and then bridging these findings to describe a reactive material's macroscopic behavior. Her ability to establish the link between how phenomena occurring on the nanoscale affect the energetic performance of a pyrotechnic on the macroscale is one example of a scientific contribution that has made her a leader at the frontiers of knowledge in energetic materials combustion.? Another more fundamental impact that broadly advances science is her research to introduce an entirely new mechanism by which a reaction can occur based on a dispersion rather than a classical diffusion process. She received US Presidential recognition for her work as a recipient of the prestigious PECASE award in 2004.
Ms. Kay J. Tindle currently serves as the Senior Director for the Research Development Team (RDT) in the Office of the Vice President for Research at Texas Tech University. Ms. Tindle received her Bachelor of Arts in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from Oklahoma Christian University and her M.Ed. in Adult and Higher Education from the University of Central Oklahoma. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education Research program with plans to defend her dissertation in Spring 2017. Her research focuses on multidisciplinary teams as mechanisms of accountability, communication practices and innovations among multidisciplinary teams, and women leaders in higher education.

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