New Center for Materials Diagnostics

A new Center for Materials Diagnostics (CMD) was recently established at the University of Dayton. Dr. Theodore Matikas (Structural Integrity, and Professor, Chemical and Materials Engineering) will serve as the Director of the Center. The Center is poised to become the world’s leading materials characterization laboratory focused on the assessment and prevention of mechanical and environmental degradation in advanced materials, and an international resource for NDE (nondestructive evaluation) and materials characterization education.

The Center is modeled on the current MURI (Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative) program, which is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). As in the MURI program, UD will be joined by other universities to conduct research on innovative NDE methods for materials characterization. The Center will work to enhance collaboration and foster the transfer of research discoveries among team members. Currently, more than 40 researchers at the University of Dayton, The Ohio State University, the University of Cincinnati, the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, and the Air Force Research Laboratory collaborate on the MURI program. In the near future more university, industry, and government team members are expected to join the Center, which already has world-class, multi-million dollar laboratory facilities installed at UD’s Caldwell Street Center.

Education is a vital part of the Center’s plans. Work has begun to develop an interdisciplinary graduate specialization in UD’s School of Engineering. By virtue of their experience on research projects using state-of-the-art facilities, students who graduate from this program will be highly skilled in advanced NDE and materials characterization methodologies. A certificate program, in collaboration with UD’s Continuing Education program, will also be developed to educate industry and government professionals on new NDE and materials characterization techniques and research.

July 1998
by Julia Phelps