Professional
I joined Texas A&M University as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering in July of 2004, after spending three years at the Avery Research Center in Pasadena, CA. In 2010, I was promoted to Associate Professor and to Professor in 2013. In 2020, I was awarded the Leland T. Jordan Chair in Mechanical Engineering. I hold joint appointments in Materials Science and Engineering and in Chemistry. My current research interests lie in the transport properties (e.g., gas permeability and electrical conductivity) of polymer nanocomposites. In the Polymer NanoComposites Laboratory, we are developing gas barrier, flame retardant and thermoelectric nanocoatings (< 1 µm thick) using layer-by-layer assembly. We’re also working on polyelectrolyte complexes and the study of electrically conductive and thermoelectric thick film nanocomposites (> 10 µm thick). I’ve now graduated 29 PhD students (as of August 2024) and published more than 180 peer reviewed journal papers. I’m an Editor for Journal of Materials Science, Associate Editor for Green Materials and serve on the International Advisory Board for Macromolecular Rapid Communications and Macromolecular Materials and Engineering.
Personal
I grew up in the Midwest, primarily in Minneapolis, MN and Appleton, WI. It was in my senior year of high school that I received a full football scholarship to NDSU. In Fargo, I met my wife Melissa, who is currently an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering. My hobbies include weight lifting, reading novels, collecting wine and watching college sports. Melissa and I have season tickets for football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and women’s soccer here at Texas A&M. Being a professor is also like a hobby because I really enjoy researching, writing and mentoring students (it’s not your typical 9 to 5 job). With that said, the most important thing to me is my personal faith in Jesus Christ. If you’re interested in knowing more about my faith, please reach out to me.