University Leads

Dr. Darryl P. Butt is a Professor and Chair of Materials Science and Engineering at Boise State University as well as the proposed I/UCRC Director. He received his Ph.D. and B.S. degrees from the Pennsylvania State University.  Dr. Butt held a variety of scientific and managerial positions at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of Florida, Ceramatec, Inc., and A. P. Green Industries.  His research focus is in the areas of materials performance under extreme conditions, materials for energy applications, synthesis of high temperature materials, mechanical and thermal properties of materials, and modeling of thermodynamics and kinetics of gas-solid and liquid-solid reactions.

 The author or co-author of approximately 170 publications, Dr. Butt has received several awards including a Los Alamos National Laboratory 1994 Distinguished Performance Award and 1999 Pollution Prevention Award for his research on Pu purification, and the American Ceramic Societies’ 1992-1993 Nuclear Division Best Paper Award and 1997 Robert L. Coble Award for Young Scholars.  He has also received several university honors including the 2004-2005 Triple Point Undergraduate Teaching Award from the University of Florida, and the 2008 Professor of the Year Award from Boise State’s College of Engineering.  Dr. Butt is a member of the American Ceramic Society and the Materials Research Society.  He is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society, an Affiliate of the Center for Advanced Energy Studies in Idaho Falls, ID and is serving on the National Academy of Engineering ROCSE committee.

 


Dr. Megan Frary joined the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Boise State in August 2005.  She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston IL, in 1999 and 2001, respectively.  After completing her M.S. degree, Dr. Frary worked as a Research Engineer in the Advanced Materials Technology group at Caterpillar, Inc. for a year and a half in Peoria, IL.  She was a member of the team that won a 2003 R&D 100 Award for the development of a novel stainless steel alloy for high temperature applications.  Dr. Frary earned her Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005.  In 2007, she received an NSF Early Career Faculty Award and, in 2008, received the Bradley Stoughton Award for Young Teachers from ASM International. 

 Her research interests focus on the role of microstructure on materials properties using both experiments and computational modeling.  She is interested in the role processing and microstructure play in mechanical properties of advanced metallic and composite materials.  Current work is in the following areas: (1) the role of surface orientation on the oxidation behavior of nickel-based alloys; (2) the influence of grain boundary structure on mechanical properties of high-temperature alloys for nuclear energy systems; (3) the role of grain boundary character in dynamic recrystallization; and (4) the kinetics and microstructural properties of spark plasma sintered nickel, tungsten and cermets. 

 

Dr. Mike Hurley is engaged in a variety of research projects being conducted in the Advanced Materials Laboratory (AML) as part of Dr. Butt’s group. Current AML research includes synthesis and sintering of nitrides and oxides for nuclear fuel reprocessing,  ceramic/metal joining of ion transport membranes, high temperature mechanical behavior, and studying alloying effects in high temperature metal systems.

In addition, the advanced materials lab hosts 3 high performance electrochemical test systems. The AML has capabilities for conducting accelerated corrosion and fuel cell characterization experiments over a wide range of materials and environmental conditions. Current and past projects include: development of environmentally friendly protective coatings for magnesium and aluminum alloys, investigating the corrosion behavior of bearing steels in very low conductivity synthetic oils, assessment of AC sensing techniques in oil, ion transport membrane conductivity and stability in low and high pH solutions, and characterization of the corrosion behavior of galvanized steel in fresh water influenced by biological activity (MIC).




Dr. Leijun Li is an Associate Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Utah State University. He received his B.S. degree from Hua-Zhong (Central China) University of Science & Technology in mechanical engineering, and Ph.D. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in materials science and engineering.  His research focus is in the areas of processing, testing, and characterization of materials and structures, welding and joining of high alloys and nuclear materials, and the relationship between heat and mass flows, microstructure, and mechanical properties. 

 Dr. Li has published approximately 30 journal and 60 conference papers. He has received the “Adams Memorial Award” and the “Navy Joining Center Fellowship Award” from the American Welding Society (2006 and 1998), and “Founders Award of Excellence” from Rensselaer (1999). He serves as Chair, Committee on Joining Critical Technologies of the American Society of Materials (ASM International), and as the Lead Conference Organizer for Symposiums on Joining of Advanced Specialty Materials, MT&T’07, MT&T’08, and MS&T’09. He is a Key Reader for the Metallurgical & Materials Transactions, a Principal Reviewer for the Welding Journal, and a reviewer for the Journal of Materials Science. He also serves on the B4 (Mechanical Testing) committee of the American Welding Society, and High Alloys Committee of the Welding Research Council.  Dr. Li was a keynote speaker at the Symposium on Numerical, Mathematical and Physical Modeling Tools for Materials Processing, MS&T'07.

 

Dr. Brent Stucker is an Associate Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Utah State University.  He received his Ph.D. and B.S. degrees from Texas A&M University and the University of Idaho respectively. Dr. Stucker was an Assistant Professor of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Rhode Island before joining Utah State University in 2002.  His research focus is in the areas of advanced manufacturing technologies, with particular expertise in additive manufacturing of novel materials; including multi-material, gradient material, multi-functional and embedded structures.

The author or co-author of more than 50 refereed publications, a co-inventor on 4 issued and 5 pending patents, and having made more than 100 presentations at professional conferences and symposia, Dr. Stucker is one of the world’s best-known researchers in additive manufacturing technologies.  Dr. Stucker was recently elected as the chairman of ASTM International’s new F42 Additive Manufacturing Technologies technical committee.  He served as the Editor for North & South America for the Rapid Prototyping Journal from 2004-2009, a highly ranked Mechanical Engineering journal focused on additive manufacturing technologies, where he remains a member of the Editorial Board.  He is a member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, where he sits on their Rapid Technologies and Additive Manufacturing Steering Committee, in addition to other professional organizations.  Dr. Stucker has been the PI or Co-PI on more than $5 million in sponsored research; and in June 2009 he completed a one-year Visiting Professorship at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, where he helped VTT plan strategic investments and research priorities in the area of advanced manufacturing and materials. Dr. Stucker has received several awards including the SFF Symposium Outstanding Papers award in 2006, the Selective Laser Sintering Users Group 2005 "Dinosaur Award," the Albert E. Carlotti Faculty Excellence Award a the University of Rhode Island (URI) in 2001, and the URI Outstanding Research Award in 2000.  




Dr. Rick Ubic joined the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at BSU in 2007.  Both his BS and MS degrees were earned at Case Western Reserve University, and his PhD is from the University of Sheffield, England.  He worked as a lecturer (assistant professor) at Queen Mary, University of London from 1999 - 2005, and as a senior lecturer (associate professor) from 2005 - 2007.  His research interests are mainly in crystal structure-property relationships in functional materials, disordered ceramics for ionic-conductor applications and nuclear-waste immobilisation, and nano-technology as it relates to solar energy generation.  His principle expertise is in materials chemistry and structural characterization, especially electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction; and he has been awarded neutron beam time at LANL, ORNL, RAL, and ILL.  He has received ~$1.4 million in research funding as PI from a variety of sources, and in 2004 he was the recipient of the American Ceramic Society's Robert L. Coble Award for Young Scholars for his “contributions relating crystallography to the behavior of dielectric properties in complex compounds.”  He has also received the Edgar Andrews Best Journal Article Prize (2006), Edward C. Henry Best Paper Award (2002), and the Berthold Eichler Memorial Prize from G.R. Stein Refractories Ltd. (1998).  Dr. Ubic currently serves as an associate editor of the Materials Research Bulletin and is a member of both the Institute of Physics (Electron Microscopy and Analysis Group) and the American Ceramic Society.