Christopher “Kip” Barrett”: mechanical engineering associate professor receives NSF CAREER award

The Department of Mechanical Engineering's Christopher "Kip" Barrett has been awarded a highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. His total award for $650,000 will help forward his "research designed to make magnesium a more useful material."

"Currently, magnesium alloys are too brittle for many applications, despite being lighter and stronger than steel or aluminum. Less brittle magnesium would be broadly useful to make lighter and more efficient vehicles. In this project, the PI will develop better computational models for magnesium alloys using artificial intelligence methods and use these models to investigate the origins of cracks at the atomic scale. The insights gathered from characterizing these simulations will be used to develop strategies for making magnesium less brittle by changing the recipe for alloying elements and temperatures used to create magnesium parts"

"I am beyond proud of [Barrett] and [Barrett's] perseverance to land this prestigious NSF Career award. My very sincere congratulations." - Haitham El Kadiri

NSF's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program was created to support faculty, who are early in their careers, who "have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization."

For more information on Barrett's award, please visit NSF's webpage.