Naresh Thadhani is Professor and past Chair of the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at Georgia Tech (GT). Following his service as School Chair over two five-year terms from 2012-2022, he pursued a 12-month assignment as Jefferson Science Fellow working with the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations at the U.S. State Department, providing materials subject matter expertise for the design, construction and maintenance of embassies and consulates addressing the challenges of extreme and often competing environmental, security, geopolitical, and diplomatic considerations. Professor Thadhani is globally recognized for his research in high-pressure shock-compression and high-strain-rate deformation of materials. His research focuses on fundamental mechanisms of shock-induced physical, chemical, and mechanical changes in materials, including their deformation and fracture behaviors under extreme conditions of high-velocity and high strain rate impact loading. He has led the understanding of shock-induced phase transformations and mechanical properties in advanced steels, bulk metallic glasses and additively manufactured materials; design, development, and characterization of structural energetic materials; and interactions of shock waves with heterogeneities in composite (solid) and granular (powder) materials. He has built a one-of-a-kind state-of-the-art high strain rate gas-gun and laser-driven impact experiments laboratory combining mesoscale spatial and nanosecond resolution temporal diagnostics and mesoscale computational simulation capabilities. He is currently building a program in H2-based direct reduction for net-shaped fabrication of Advanced Steels, with net-zero CO2 emissions, and using conventional and lower-quality ores and tailings.

Professor Thadhani has advised 15 visiting scientists/post-docs; 29 Ph.D and 18 M.S degree students; and mentored 60+ undergraduate student researchers. He has attracted research funding of ~$18M (~$15M as PI and ~$3M as co-PI) from federal agencies including the AFOSR, ARO, DARPA, DTRA, ONR, NSF, as well as DoE and DoD national laboratories and industries. He has co-edited 12 books/proceedings, published more than 275 refereed papers (including several invited review articles) and 173 publications in conference proceedings, and presented more than 170 invited talks and seminars. He has served or is serving on review boards including the National Academy of Science panel for review of the Army Research Laboratory (2015, 2016, and 2018), academic program reviews of materials science and engineering programs at several universities, as well as on external advisory boards of Materials Science and Engineering programs. He has organized numerous conferences and provided high levels of service to professional societies, industries, and the government.

Professor Thadhani is recipient of the National Academies’ Jefferson Science Fellowship and the TMS Leadership award. He is an elected Fellow of ASM International and the American Physical Society, and Academician of the EuroMediterranean Academy of Arts and Sciences.