Prof Julia Greer, Caltech gives CRANN seminar

Prof. Julia R. Greer, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Mechanics, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), presented in CRANN last week as part of the institute’s 2010 International Seminar Series. Prior to her lecture, she spent some time discussing research across CRANN PI groups at a student poster presentation.

A key focus in Prof Greer’s research is the development of innovative experimental approaches to assess mechanical properties, microstructure evolution, and deformation mechanisms in materials whose dimensions have been reduced to nano-scale not only vertically but also laterally. One such approach involves the fabrication of surface dominated metallic specimens (i.e. nano-pillars) with different homogeneous initial microstructures: single crystalline and amorphous; or containing boundaries: nano-twinned, nano-crystalline, and amorphous/crystalline. These samples range in diameter from below 100 nm to 1 micron and are created by using both the Focused Ion Beam (FIB)- based and other novel micro-fabrication approaches. In addition, her group studies the deformation of carbon nanotube (CNT) foam 50 micron-diameter cylinders. Their mechanical response under uniaxial tension and compression is subsequently measured in a one-of-a-kind in-situ mechanical deformation instrument, SEMentor, comprised of SEM and Nanoindenter, which allow for precise control of displacement and loading rates, as well as for simultaneous video capture. Post-deformation microstructure is analyzed by high-resolution, site specific TEM.  In her presentation to CRANN researchers, Greer discussed the differences in mechanical behaviour observed in these nano-sized metallic systems: single crystals, nano-crystalline metals, and amorphous metallic alloys (metallic glasses), as well as in CNT foams.

Greer joined the Materials Science department, Caltech in 2007. She received her Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University, working on nano-scale plasticity of gold (2005). She has also worked at Intel Corporation in a mask micro-fabrication facility (2000-03) and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Palo Alto Research Center, PARC (2005-07), where she studied organic flexible electronics. Greer is a recipient of the NASA Tech Briefs award (2010), DARPA Young Faculty Award (2009), one of 100 invited participants in the National Academy of Engineering’s Frontiers of Engineering Symposium (2009), Technology Review’s Top Young Innovator Under 35 award (TR-35, 2008), the NSF CAREER Award (2007), the Gold Materials Research Society’s Graduate Student Award (2004) and American Association of University Women Fellowship (2003). She is also a concert pianist, with most recent performance of violin-piano recital in the Lagerstrom Chamber Series (2009) and as a soloist of the Brahms Concerto No. 2 with the Redwood Symphony (2006).

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