Faculty & Staff

 Brajendra Mishra’s research focuses on sustainable stewardship of earth’s resources by developing technologies to advance commercially viable metals/materials processing. He is involved in the design and development of industry-oriented methods for energy and materials sustainability, which is one of the greatest challenges in the 21st Century.At WPI, Professor Brajendra Mishra is the Kenneth G. Merriam Distinguished Professor of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, and the Director of the Metal Processing Institute at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  Prof. Mishra is also the ...

 Working with scholars and students, especially undergraduates, on research and design projects is what I like best about my three and a half decades at WPI. My degrees are from the University of Vermont. There I was most fortunate to be coached by Mickey Cochran and advised by Branimir von Turkovich for my MS on fracture testing and PhD on metal cutting. Before coming to WPI in 1989 I worked on mechanical metallurgy, surface metrology, and ski equipment at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), and I worked on product and process development at Atlas Copco’s ...

 After graduating from UNH with a chemical engineering degree in 2005, Danielle Cote worked as a researcher at Saint-Gobain in the Northboro Research and Development Center in polymer science and data automation.  Cote continued working while she pursued a master’s degree at WPI, followed by a PhD fellowship, and joined the WPI faculty in 2016. Today Professor Cote’s research focuses on the development of materials for high deposition rate metal additive manufacturing techniques, such as cold spray and wire arc additive manufacturing.  Professor Cote has been awarded more than $25 ...

 As a Professor of Teaching at WPI, I share my enthusiasm for materials science, thermal fluids, renewable energy and biomaterials, both in my classes and as a capstone design project advisor. Education is my way of sharing my passion for Science and Engineering. I believe that these are great professions because they give us the ability to effect real and positive change in this world. I particularly enjoy the varied and interesting contributions my students make in class, and the collaborative environment of WPI as a whole.My current research is centered on the scholarship of teaching ...

Professor Liang’s research explores the physics of interfaces between the nanometer and micron scales.  Her team responds to the challenging interdisciplinary nature of their research endeavor through successful collaboration with colleagues with expertise in metrology, physics, bioscience, medical science, chemistry, and fire protection engineering.  Her educational effort includes novel approaches to project-based learning and global centers for science and engineering.  She has created three new courses with technical focuses on nanomaterials (ME4875/MTE575/MTE594), nanobiotechnology ...

Makhlouf M. Makhlouf is professor of Mechanical & Materials Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). He was Director of the Advanced Casting Research Center (ACRC) between 1992 and 2015. ACRC is a collaboration between the academic and industrial sectors focusing on issues that benefit the global foundry industry. It brings fundamental understanding to existing processes, develops new methods, and addresses management-technology interface matters. Under Makhlouf’s leadership, the ACRC evolved to be the leading foundry-related industry-university research consortium in the ...

Adam C. Powell, IV is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical & Materials Engineering department who joined the WPI faculty in August 2018. His field is materials processing, and research focuses on greenhouse gas emissions reduction, elimination, and drawdown. Current projects aim to reduce vehicle body weight, lower solar cell manufacturing energy use and cost with improved safety, reduce or eliminate aviation greenhouse gas impact, power ships and trains with zero emissions, and improve grid stability as we drive toward 100% renewables. The primary tools for achieving these goals ...

My research is aimed at discovering, understanding and developing advanced materials for a range of applications including solar energy conversion, catalysis, printed electronics, sensors, and functional coatings. Our lab specializes in the synthesis of nanostructured thin film materials using scalable processes. Students and researchers in my lab can expect to work on highly interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of materials science, mechanical engineering, solid state physics, and thermal sciences.

I am William Smith Foundation Dean's Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Since joining WPI, I have been very active in research. Currently, my lab focuses on the study of new electrodes and materials for energy storage, including lithium ion batteries, supercapacitors, flow batteries, battery manufacturing, battery safety and recycle, and fundamental electrochemistry. This research can lead to energy storage with high energy density, high power density, long life, low cost, and high safety. In addition to fundamental research, I have commercialized the ...

We are currently hiring!!Dr. Yu Zhong is currently a Professor in Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department. He received his Ph.D. from Penn State (2005). After a short-term working as Research Associate, he joined Saint-Gobain High Performance Research Center in Northborough, MA. He had spent his 8-year career there working as an internal technical consultant focusing on the application of thermodynamics and kinetics to various materials R&D projects. In 2013, He moved to Florida International University (FIU) as Assistant Professor. He received the James Nichols Heald Research ...

Dr. Zhu Mao joined WPI as an Associate Professor in the Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department in 2021, and before that, he was on the faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell from 2015. His research interests include dynamics and vibration, intelligent systems, noncontact sensing and computer vision, signal processing and machine learning, uncertainty quantification, and condition-based monitoring for a variety of applications. He has published over 120 papers on journals and conference proceedings, and was the Chair of Technical Division on Model ...

Professor Christiansen works with microstructure optimization and surface engineering of metallic materials for improving materials properties and performance. He is the director of the Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE), which is a member-driven industrial center anchored at Worcester Polytechnic Institute that conducts research and development for primarily the thermal processing industry. The center focuses on heat treating and thermochemical surface engineering of metallic components – technological disciplines that are important for our modern society. Prof. Christiansen joined ...

Joel Harris, PE, joined the Manufacturing Laboratory after a 32 year career at Raytheon Technologies (formerly Raytheon Co) plus 3 years at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft.  Joel's area of expertise is mechanical and mechatronic engineering of aerospace and marine products.  Joel worked on design, analysis, manufacture, test of components and systems, plus support to fielded products.  For his last 12 years at Raytheon, Joel was the engineering lead for the manufacture of the PATRIOT GEM-T missile control section.   Joel received a BSME from MIT and a MEME from ...