Professor Gregory S. Rohrer W.W. Mullins Professor and Department Head of Materials Science and Engineering Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania Department of Materials Science and Engineering Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Wean Hall 3327 Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 Email: Phone: (412) 268-2696 FAX: (412) 268-7596 Professor Rohrer's Web Site

Biography

Gregory S. Rohrer is the W.W. Mullins Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, the Head of the Materials Science and Engineering Department, and the Director of the NSF sponsored Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his bachelor's degree in Physics from Franklin and Marshall College in 1984 and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989. He is the author of over 160 publications and has received the following awards: National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award (1994), Roland B. Snow Award of the American Ceramic Society (1998), Ross Coffin Purdy Award of the American Ceramic Society (2002), Fellow of the American Ceramic Society (2003), the Richard M. Fulrath Award of the American Ceramic Society (2004), and the Robert B. Sosman Award of the American Ceramic Society (2009).  Rohrer gave the Lawley lecture at Drexel University in 2005, the Winchell Lecture at Purdue University in 2007, and the GE Distinguished Lecture for MS&E at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2009. Rohrer is an Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society and was the chair of the Basic Science Division of the American Ceramic Society in 2005.

Research Interests

The properties of surfaces and grain boundaries are influenced by their geometric and crystallographic structure, their stoichiometry, and their defect structure. Professor Rohrer’s research is aimed at the quantitative study of interfacial properties with the goal of defining structure-property relationships for interfaces. Current research in the area of polycrystalline structure has the goals of quantifying the population of different grain boundary types, measuring their properties, understanding the mechanism by which the network forms during processing, and understanding the influence that the network structure has on the macroscopic properties of the material. Current research in the area of metal oxide surfaces has the long range goal of developing composite polar oxide materials that make the photolytic production of hydrogen economically feasible.

Recent Publications

J. Li, S.J. Dillon and G.S. Rohrer, "Relative Grain Boundary Area and Energy Distributions in Nickel," Acta Materialia, 57 (2009) 4304-4311.

S.J. Dillon and G.S. Rohrer, “Mechanism for the development of anisotropic grain boundary character distributions during normal grain growth,” Acta Materialia 57 (2009) 1-7.

J.L. Giocondi and G.S. Rohrer, “The Influence of the Dipolar Field Effect on the Photochemical Reactivity of Sr2Nb2O7 and BaTiO3 Microcrystals,” Topics in Catalysis 49 (2008) 18-23.

C.-S. Kim, T.R. Massa, G.S. Rohrer, "Interface character distributions in WC-Co composites," J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 91 (2008) 996-1001.

G.S. Rohrer, "The Distribution of Grain Boundary Planes in Polycrystals", JOM 59 (2007) 38-42.