Directory

Allan S. Crasto

Senior Advisor, Research Initiatives

University of Dayton Research Institute: Office of the Director

Profile

Dr. Crasto has over 28 years of experience at UDRI performing and managing research and development projects for government and industry. He began serving as Director of the Research Institute on January 1, 2016 and was named Executive Director effective July 1, 2019; he retired from the Research Institute March 1, 2021 but remains in a senior advisory role.

Before this time, as Associate Director, Dr. Crasto oversaw the Institute’s operating divisions, with responsibility for administration, resource allocation and operational coordination of research programs on campus and at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Prior to his appointment as associate director, Dr. Crasto served as division head for Nonmetallic Materials. In this capacity he was responsible for developing, managing and facilitating the growth of the division’s resources, in addition to providing leadership for basic and applied research in polymers, composites, fluids, lubricants, coatings, tribology, surface science, thin films and several diagnostic tests related to these materials. Prior to that, he served as leader for the Composites group from 1990 through 1999.

Prior to joining UDRI, Dr. Crasto worked for one year as a visiting scientist at AFRL/ML, performing research on molecular composites, and for two years prior to that as a postdoctoral researcher at Washington State University, modifying and characterizing the fiber-matrix interface and interphase regions in fiber-reinforced composites.

Dr. Crasto is a Fellow of the Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering (SAMPE).