Rodney Trice

Professor Rodney Trice, currently residing in the School of Materials Engineering at Purdue University, has focused on many fundamental and applied research topics over the last 25 years. Rod and his students have investigated structure-property relationships of thermal barrier coatings at high temperature, researched the effect of petroleum-based and biofuel impurities on degradation of thermal barrier coatings, established the importance of suspension plasma spray for industrial purposes, and developed high-emissivity coatings for hypersonic flight.

More recently, and in collaboration with Professor Jeffrey Youngblood, he has developed powder-processing schemes to fabricate ceramics into complex shapes using highly-loaded ceramic suspensions with room-temperature flowable water-based polymers. This low-cost processing approach has been adapted to injection mold and direct write powders to include B₄C, Si₃N₄, Al₂O₃, ZrB₂, and other types. Also, hot forging of alumina for transparency, with a focus on alignment of Al₂O₃ platelets, is being explored. His current research is supported by ARO, ONR, ARPA-E and CTSSO. Rod has encouraged his students to participate in ACerS through the President’s Council of Student Advisors and has benefited greatly from excellent graduate students, as well as supportive mentors to include Professor John Halloran and Professor Kathy Faber.