Materials & Metallurgical Engineering

• Surface modification of Ti implants via electrochemical & additive manufacturing techniques
• Structure-property relationships in advanced coatings
• 9 peer reviewed articles related to processing and characterization of advanced coatings

AMP Laboratory

• PVD & CVD processing, plasma electrolytic oxidation of nanostructured thin-films for erosion, abrasion, sliding- wear, and corrosion resistance.  Over 50 publications in surface engineering
• Hybrid atmospheric plasma CVD & nanoparticle spray technology for corrosion protection and superhydrophobic and icephobic coatings
  
• CTO of NanoCoatings, Inc., a thin-film coating development company in Rapid City; Engineered coatings with sales of over $4.5M in SBIR/STTR funding
  

Materials & Metallurgical Engineering

• Laser cladding of advanced coatings and functionally graded materials (FGM)
• Friction Stir (surface alloying), Cold spraying of metallic/composite coatings for corrosion and wear
  

Materials & Metallurgical Engineering

• Carbon nano-materials (nanotube and graphene) for application in grease lubricants
  
• Developed unique method to mix carbon nano-materials with metal/metal oxides
  
• Surface modification and characterization of metal/metal oxides
  

Civil & Environmental Engineering

• NSF Career Award: Conformal 2D coatings (e.g. graphene) for microbial corrosion resistance
  
• Corrosion resistant surfaces for crude-oil production equipment in North Dakota
  
• Graphene coated electrodes in microbial-bioelectrochemical systems for water treatment
  

Chemistry & Biochemistry

• Functionalized carboxylate deposition (FCD) of activated organics as self-assembled monolayers
  
• FCD to dye-sensitize porous titania for energy generation (solar-cells)
  
• Patented FCD and published the first use of FCD in the peer reviewed literature
  

Mechanical Engineering

• Director - Materials Evaluation and Testing Laboratory (MET LAB)
  
• Micro and Nano-Mechanical Testing of hard surface coatings and biomedical implants
  

Mechanical Engineering

• Computational fluid dynamics, fluid mechanics
  
• Combustion
  

Chemistry

• Functionalization of silica nanoparticles; coating of titania with Ag by the photolysis technique
  
• Non-destructive functionalization of graphene and other carbonaceous materials by cycloaddition
  
• USD lead collaborator with Composite & Nanocomposite Advanced Manufacturing
• One US patent, 2 provisional patents, peer-reviewed publications, two book chapters