| Meet the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Dan Thoma Professor of Materials Science & Engineering |
 |
Research area Research in the Alloy Design and Development Laboratories experimentally and theoretically evaluates novel design schemes in metal additive units; enables validation of scientific and technological designs, as well as the physical models required for tailored synthesis; and permits new science, collaborations and innovations.
What excites you about your work?
“The students. I retired as Deputy Division Leader for the Materials Science and Technology (MST) Division of Los Alamos National Lab and came back to UW-Madison, my alma mater, to provide perspective for students entering the workforce and help them make a broad impact on their community, state and nation. Most engineers get into the field to make an impact on society, and I’ve always been involved in energy applications—higher operating temperatures for higher efficiencies, or new materials and the next generation of fusion reactors for sustainable energy. These have big impacts. I tell my students that as engineers, if we can come up with a way to make our energy, air and water cleaner, let’s do the right thing and make it economically viable.”
What do you hope to achieve?
“I have my students put in an idea for a patent application. I want them to experience taking the science and expand it to envision making an impact on society. Writing a technical paper is very different from writing an invention disclosure. WARF makes it easy.”
Dan excels at big ideas that impact the world of materials development. I’m always excited to see what innovation he comes up with next.
– Michael Carey, WARF, Licensing Manager
Want to learn more?
Michael Carey, [email protected], 608.960.9867