Principle Investigator: Professor Dwayne D. Arola
Professor, Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)
Director, Applied Masters Program, MSE
Adjunct Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Adjunct Professor, Oral Health Sciences and Restorative Dentistry
Dr. Arola is currently a professor of Material Science and Engineering (MSE) at the University of Washington. He holds adjunct appointments in Mechanical Engineering, Oral Health Science and Restorative Dentistry. His research is broadly focused on process to performance relationships of engineering and natural materials, with primary focus on their damage tolerance, including their resistance to fatigue and fracture. His team works on problems involving contributions from aging, chronic diseases and the environment. He received a Career award from the National Science Foundation and his work has attracted support from the DOD, FAA, NIDCR, NIH, and NSF, as well as many industrial partners. His current efforts are focused on additive manufacturing processes, bioinspiration involving the armors and weapons in Nature, as well as pursuing new methods of processing for the development of next-generation structural materials.
Elected MSE Faculty of the Year Award (Senior Class): 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022
Faculty of the Year (PhD graduate students): 2022
Current Group Members
Rick Schleusener
PhD Student
Analyzing laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) variability
Katie Tang
PhD Student
Dentin & Disease, Natural tooth properties & whitening efficacy
Graduate Mentor of the Year (2026);
TA of the Year, Senior (2022)
Colin Marquis
PhD Student
Bio-inspired 3D printed composites
Dorothy Simpson ARCS Foundation Leadership Award (2025); Graduate Mentor of the Year (2023); TA of the Year, Senior (2023)
Brandon Lou
PhD Student
Benefits of natural zeloite as cement replacement
Daniel Lund
PhD Student
Spatial variations in spatter for LPBF
Jeongsu Shin
Masters
Analyzing mechanical property variation in LPBF Ti-6Al-4V through statistical modeling and microstructural characterization.
Rohin Petram
Masters
Effects of surface finishing on LPBF fatigue life
Cade Greseth
Masters
Megan Hong
Masters
Megan Fahrenkamp
Masters
Additive Manufacturing of Composite Materials
Daniel Uhm
Undergraduate
Rachel Lee
Undergraduate
Enamel Microstructure & Aging on Tooth Aesthetics
Hadi Fouzy Almisbaa
Undergraduate
Douglas and Barbara Allan K-12 Outreach Award (2026)
Anjali Roy
Undergraduate
Lilly Taback
Undergraduate
Ron Zuckerman
Undergraduate
Characterizing AM Polymer Degradation
Elle Ceaser
Undergraduate
Dai Minh Le
Undergraduate
4-Axis AM of Continuous Flexible Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites
Kelly Tam
Undergraduate
Lily Ulrich
Undergraduate
Ian West
Undergraduate
Alumni
Dissertation Title: “Insights of the Nanoscale Compositional Variations in Dental Enamel Revealed by Atom Probe Tomography“
Postdoctoral Researcher, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Affiliate Instructor, UW MSE
Graduate Mentor of the Year (2021); TA of the Year, Junior (2020)
ORCiD | Google Scholar | LinkedIn | Email
Dissertation Title: “Design of Thermoformable Composites and Advanced Manufacturing: Linking Processing, Microstructure, and Service Life Performance“
Douglas and Barbara Allan K-12 Outreach Award (2025)
ORCiD | Google Scholar | LinkedIn | Email
Dissertation Title: “Structure-Property Relationships in Natural Materials: The Case of Tooth Enamel“
Postdoc, UW School of Dentistry
ORCiD | Google Scholar | LinkedIn | Email
Dissertation Title: “Laser Powder Bed Fusion of Ti-6Al-4V: A Round Robin Analysis of Mechanical Property Variability“
The Boeing Company
Dissertation Title: “A pathway towards enamel-inspired damage-tolerant materials “
Utility Global
Dissertation Title: “Contributions of Powder Reuse to Structure-Property Relationships in EBM Additive Manufacturing of Ti6Al4V“
Skydio
Dissertation Title: “Structure-Property Relationships for Human Dentin: The Importance of Biological and Chronological Aging”
Dissertation Title: “Structural Behavior of Fish Scales from the Tarpon: A Model Armor”
Intel Corporation
Dissertation Title: “The Durability and Fracture Resistance of Bonded Interfaces to Hard Tissues: Experiments and Modeling”
CAO Group Inc.
Dissertation Title: “Stress Induced Demineralization of Hard Tissues: Experiments and Modeling”
Assistant Professor, Temple University
Dissertation Title: “Development of Novel Nanoscopic Techniques for Characterizing Hydrated Tissues and their Bonded Interfaces”
US Naval Research Laboratory
Dissertation Title: “Anisotropy in the Crack Growth Resistance of Human Enamel”
Dupont
Dissertation Title: “Transformation in the Anisotropy of Hard Tissues with Aging“
Brekford Corporation
Dissertation Title: “Fatigue and Fracture Properties of Human Dentin: Aging, Ethnicity and Microstructure“
KBR, Inc.
Dissertation Title: “Residual Stress Fields Resulting from Abrasive Waterjet Peening of Metals: Mechanisms and Modeling“
Chrysler Corporation
Dissertation Title: “The Mechanics of Crack Extension within Human Enamel, Energy Dissipation and Mechanisms of Toughening“
SABIC – Innovative Plastics
Dissertation Title: “Elastic Image Registration Based on Strain Energy Minimization: Application to Prostate Magnetic Resonance Imaging“
Technest, Inc.
Dissertation Title: “A Hybrid Evaluation of the Mechanics of Fracture of Human Dentin“
Entrepreneur
Dissertation Title: “The Bone/Cement Interface in Total Hip Replacement: An in vitro Study of Bone Surface Preparation, Fatigue Loading and Interface Mechanics“
US Postal Service