Wadley Lab Wins Major Equipment Award

The Wadley Lab group received notification of DOD approval to construct a $800,000 high temperature, high water vapor pressure laser gradient test facility as part of the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program.  The new instrumentation will enable the University of Virginia researchers to recreate the thermal, environmental and mechanical loading conditions within future ceramic gas turbine engines.


According to DOD press release, the highly competitive program  received over 695 proposals for support from a wide range of advanced engineering areas:

"The Defense University Research Instrumentation Program supports state of the art equipment that augments current university capabilities or develops new capabilities to perform cutting edge defense research and associated graduate student research training....    This includes research that underpins advances in materials, structures, and manufacturing science; quantum and nanosciences; computing and networks; electronics, electromagnetics, electro optics; acoustics; neuroscience; fluid dynamics; robotics and autonomous systems; and ocean, environmental, and life sciences and engineering."

Congratulations to the MSE, EP, and ES class of 2015!

“You're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So... get on your way!”
from ― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Theron Rodgers Receives Ph.D.

Well done Theron! Theron Rodgers has completed his Engineering Physics Ph.D. with a successfully defended dissertation titled "Non-Line-of-Sight Directed Vapor Deposition".  Theron is currently finishing up several papers on the coating of doublet guide vanes before joining Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, New Mexico).

Bradley Richards Receives Ph.D.

Congratulations to Dr. Bradley Richards who successfully presented and defended his MSE Ph.D. dissertation on "Ytterbium Silicate Environmental Barrier Coatings" in April.  Brad is now finishing up several papers before starting the next phase of his career with GE Global (Niskayuna, NY).

Titanium Wood?

Liang Dong has developed a novel technique for making titanium cellular materials with a highly efficient octet truss structure.  His recent paper in the International Journal of Solids and Structures "Mechanical Response of Ti-6Al-4V Octet-Truss Lattice Structures" shows that the cellular structure is of similar density and strength to engineered balsa wood, but offers the greatly improved corrosion and high temperature resistance and titanium.