Structural materials such as cast and wrought metal alloys are commonly selected for applications on the basis of their mechanical and physical properties. In contrast to trial-and-error selection, advances in modeling and simulation over the past quarter of a century have enabled materials scientists and engineers to take a systematic approach to tailoring materials for applications.

David L. McDowell, Regents’ Professor and Carter N. Paden, Jr. Distinguished Chair in Metals Processing at Georgia Institute of Technology, is doing just that by bringing together computational simulation tools for metals processing and mechanical behavior at various length scales with state-of-the-art mechanical testing and characterization tools.

Having joined Georgia Tech in 1983, McDowell served as Director of the Mechanical Properties Research Laboratory (MPRL) from 1992-2012 prior to founding the Institute for Materials (IMat). He has served as Executive Director of IMat since 2012.

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