DESIDERIO KOVAR, Ph.D.

BFGoodrich Endowed Professor in Materials Engineering
Associate Chair for Academics, Department of Mechanical Engineering
and University Distinguished Teaching Professor

Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712


OTHER UNIVERSITY AFFILIATIONS

Member, Center for Additive Manufacturing and Design Innovation, 2021- present.
Member, Texas Materials Institute, 1998-present.

 

EDUCATION

University of California at Berkeley, B.S., Materials Science and Engineering, 1990.
Carnegie Mellon University, M.S., Materials Science and Engineering, 1992.
Carnegie Mellon University, Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, 1995.


BIOSKETCH: Dr. Kovar has been on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin since 1997. He holds the BFGoodrich Professorship in Materials Engineering and is a University Distinguished Teaching Professor.  Dr. Kovar is a member of the Texas Materials Institute, is affiliated with the Center for Electromechanics, and is a core member of the Center for Additive Manufacturing and Design Innovation at the University of Texas at Austin. He teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in the Materials Engineering area of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.  Dr. Kovar has supervised or co-supervised the independent research of 48 undergraduate students, 23 MS theses, and 20 Ph.D. dissertations and he is currently supervising 2 post-doctoral researchers and supervising or co-supervising 9 graduate students and 2 undergraduate students. 

Dr. Kovar has received many awards for his teaching and research including the Engineering Foundation Young Faculty Excellence Award from the Cockrell School of Engineering (2000), the Teaching Excellence Award from the Student Engineering Council (2000), the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Jack and Maxine Zarrow Family K-16 Teaching Innovation Award (2014), the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company Award for Excellence in Engineering Teaching (2016) and the Mechanical Engineering Department’s Teaching Award (2016). In 2019, he was inducted into the University of Texas at Austin’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers.

In 2013, he founded the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Longhorn Maker Studio, a makerspace equipped with a range of equipment including 3D printers, laser cutters, and other equipment that allows students to take their projects from conceptualization to fabrication. He served as the inaugural Faculty Director for the Longhorn Maker Studio from its inception until March of 2016, when a full-time director was hired, and the facility was renamed Texas Inventionworks. From 2012-2016, he chaired the Mechanical Engineering Department’s curriculum committee, where he spearheaded a number of successful reforms that improved student learning and significantly increased student retention.  This included a college-wide reorganization of the mathematics curriculum in Engineering. In 2018, he headed the effort to create the Materials Science and Engineering minor, the first minor in Engineering and has served as the faculty advisor for the minor since its inception. From 2005-2018, he served as Graduate Advisor for the Materials Science and Engineering Graduate Program, which has an enrollment of approximately 80 MS and Ph.D. students. In 2012, he was recognized as the University of Texas’ Outstanding Graduate Advisor. He served as Area Coordinator for the Materials Engineering Area of Mechanical Engineering from 2017-2022 and currently is the Associate Chair for Academics for the Mechanical Engineering Department. He is active in the American Ceramic Society's Basic Science Division and is a member of the organizing committee for the International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, one of the largest academic conferences dedicated to additive manufacturing.

Dr. Kovar has published over 100 journal articles, conference proceedings, patents, and reports. He is studying micro-cold spray manufacturing, which allows metallic, ceramic, and composite films to be directly written at room temperature onto almost any substrate material. He is also developing selective laser flash sintering, a new additive manufacturing process he co-invented for producing bulk ceramics.  His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, the Army Research Laboratory, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Research Laboratory through America Makes, as well as a number of corporate sponsors.


PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Visiting Scientist, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, March 1994 - February 1995

Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, March 1995 - July 1997

Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, September 1997 - August 2003

Visiting Professor, Ecole Centrale de Lille/Institut d'Électronique et de MicrolÉlectronique du Nord (IEMN), Lille, France, June 2000-July 2000

Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, September 2003 - August 2011 

Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, September 2011 - present 


SELECTED ADMINISTRATIVE AND SERVICE EXPERIENCE

Graduate Advisor, Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of Texas at Austin, 2005 - 2018.

Responsible for the day-to-operation of the graduate program in Materials Science and Engineering (approximately 60 students).

Chair, Sosman Award Committee, Basic Science Division, American Ceramic Society, 2004-2005.

Responsible for selecting the winner of the most prestigious prize awarded by the Basic Science Division.

Chair, Basic Science Division Nominations Committee, American Ceramic Society, 2004-2005.

Responsible for nominated officers for the Basic Science Division.

Chair, Mechanical Engineering Dept. Safety and Security Committee, 2000-2006.

Developed and implemented a plan to eliminate thousands of unwanted and unused chemicals from the Mechanical Engineering Building.

Chair, University of Texas at Austin Standing Committee of the General Faculty: Information Technology Committee, 2006-2008.

Wrote the legislation to create this committee and later served as Chair.

Member, University of Texas at Austin Faculty Council, 2004-2008 & 2014-2016.

Served two terms on the University's governing body that represents faculty interests.

Chair, Mechanical Engineering Department Curriculum Committee, University of Texas at Austin, 2012-2016.

Led the effort to innovate the ME curriculum to improve student retention (1st and 2nd year retention approximately doubled) by significantly modifying the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year curriculum.

Co-Chair, ad hoc Math-Engineering Committee, 2013-2017.

Committee was responsible for a top-to-bottom restructuring of the math curriculum for all Engineering students.

Founding Director, Longhorn Maker Studio (now Texas Inventionworks), University of Texas at Austin, 2014- 2016.

Led the effort to secure funding, purchase equipment, and hire staff and students to start the Cockrell School of Engineering's maker space.

Materials Engineering Area Coordinator, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 2016 - 2022.

Manage teaching assignments, research and laboratory infrastructure, faculty assessments, and other day-to-day responsibilities for the Materials Engineering Area of Mechanical Engineering (~15 faculty).

Chair and Faculty Advisor, Materials Science and Engineering Minor Committee, 2016-present.

Committee proposed and implemented (effective Fall 2018) a minor in Materials Science and Engineering (the first minor in the Cockrell School of Engineering).

Chair, Mechanical Engineering Department Chair Search Committee, 2019-2021.

Member, Organizing Committee, Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, 2019-present.

Associate Chair for Academics, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin,  September 2022-present.


AWARDS

Charles Martin Hall Award, Aluminum Association of America, Best Paper, 1990.

Teaching Excellence Award, Student Engineering Council, University of Texas at Austin, 2000.

Engineering Foundation Young Faculty Excellence Award (one selected at UT Austin each year), College of Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 2000.

William J. Murray Jr. Fellowship in Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 2004-2016.

Listed in Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, 2007-present.

Outstanding Graduate Advisor (one selected at UT Austin each year), University of Texas at Austin, 2012.

Jack and Maxine Zarrow Family K-16 Teaching Innovation Award (one selected in the Cockrell School of Engineering every few years), Cockrell School of Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 2014.

Mechanical Engineering Department Award for Teaching Excellence (One selected in the Department of Mechanical Engineering each year), University of Texas at Austin, 2016.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company Award for Excellence in Engineering Teaching (one selected at UT Austin each year), Cockrell School of Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 2016.

E.C.H. Bantel Professorship, Cockrell School of Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 2016-2019.

BFGoodrich Endowed Professorship, Cockrell School of Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 2019-present.

Elected to the University of Texas at Austin's  Academy of Distinguished Teachers, 2019.


MEMBERSHIPS IN PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES

The American Ceramic Society

Materials Research Society 

 

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

Processing and microstructure/property relations of materials. Specific areas of interest include:

Direct additive manufacturing of ceramics by selective laser flash sintering

Indirect additive manufacturing of ceramics and metals by selective laser sintering and selective laser melting

Direct-writing of patterned thick films and micro-scale devices by micro-cold spray and cold spray

 

CURRENT SUPPORT

 Los Alamos National Laboratory, “Advanced Manufacturing Research & Development,” (PI M. Pryor, co-P.I.s S. Landsberger and D. Kovar)  December 20, 2021 – December 19, 2026. $5,111,234, (my share = $613,348)

National Science Foundation, “Mechanisms for Film Formation During Room Temperature Micro Cold Spray of Ceramics,” (P.I. D. Kovar, co-P.I. M.F. Becker), June 1, 2021 – May 31, 2025. $432,013.

Sandia National Laboratories “Nozzle Optimization for Increased Efficiency of Kinetic Spray Processes,” October 1, 2024-Sept. 30, 2025. $118,676.

DARPA, “Embedded, Chipless RFID Sensors for Structural Health Monitoring of Additively Manufactured Parts, DARPA-PA-23-03-06-SENSE-FP-022, PI, M. Cullinan, Co-PIs D. Kovar, J.J. Beaman, S. Salvatore, A. Hanson, S. Li, D. Leigh, and J. Allison. $600,000 for phase 1. February 1, 2024-January 31, 2025.  Phase II has been approved for the period Feb. 2, 2024-January 31, 2026, $400,000 for phase 2.

Army Research Laboratory, “Convergent Manufacturing for Electronic and Structural Applications,” PI D. Kovar, Co-PIs Michael Gammage, Chih-Hao Chang, Michael Cullinan, and Zhenghui Sha, $400,000. Feb. 2, 2024-Feb. 1, 2025.

Air Force of Scientific Research/National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining, “Flash Sintering Development,” (P.I. J.J. Beaman, co-P.I. D. Kovar), $400,000, February 22, 2024 – August 21, 2025.

HRL Laboratories, "Micro Cold spray of Metal-Ceramic Sandwich Structures," $10,000, October 1, 2024 - March 31, 2024.


Publications 


Patents and Patent Applications


TEACHING

My principal area of teaching is in the Materials Engineering area of the Mechanical Engineering Department.  I have taught the following courses