Aeriel Leonard secures Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award

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The past year has been a whirlwind marked by a new job, relocation and research milestones for Dr. Aeriel Leonard. The materials science and engineering professor just completed her inaugural semester of teaching at The Ohio State University and capped it off with being awarded for her first submitted proposal. 

Funded by the Office of Naval Research's Young Investigators Program, her three-year, $800,000 project begins in July and includes procurement funds for an ultrasonic fatigue (UF) system that can be used ex-situ and in-SEM for real-time analysis. The UF system is the first of its kind in Ohio and only the second system in the U.S. featuring in-SEM UF.

Prof. Leonard in lab
Prof. Leonard Aeriel Leonard inserts a fatigue specimen into a load frame

Leonard’s project, Systematic Study on Slip Activity and Plastic Strain Accumulation in Wire-Arc Additive Manufactured Nickel-Aluminum-Bronze Alloys, will use a combination of advanced characterization techniques to link the sensitivity of cyclic deformation (fatigue) mechanisms to microstructural influences in nickel-aluminum-bronze (NAB) manufactured via wire arc additive manufacturing (AM). The information from these studies will inform the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense on how to qualify AM NAB parts and components by understanding how these AM microstructures influence fatigue behavior and life as well as the crack growth behavior in both corrosive and non-corrosive environments.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigators Program is designed for “academic scientists and engineers” who are in the nascent stage of their higher education career — whether in instructing, researching or a combination thereof. Six departments within the Department of the Navy’s Science and Technology research program support research spanning from algorithms to armor and falling within the spectrum of basic research to “advanced technology development."

The majority of the research will be conducted in Leonard’s lab, which is located in the new Mars G. Fontana Laboratories — part of college’s $59.1 million, 124,000 square feet Biomedical and Materials Engineering Complex that opened in autumn 2020. Research will extend to the Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis (CEMAS) and the Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME). Two materials science and engineering graduate students will complete the research team and “gain a unique skillset that will help advance their careers after graduate school,” said Leonard.

Her interest in the field of materials science can be traced back to high school, “In high school, I was a huge nerd and was really competitive in science fair," she said. "My 10th grade project involved looking at fatigue behavior in high strength aluminum alloys. It’s funny because I have been studying fatigue behavior for 15 years. It has always felt natural for me.”

“Being awarded the Young Investigator Award really means a lot to me," she added. "This was the first proposal I ever wrote, so it feels really good that the committee at ONR believed in my research ideas and goals. I get to perform cutting-edge research that will advance our understanding of a very complex alloy system.”

A strong faculty mentorship program supported Leonard in drafting a successful ONR YIP proposal. She credits Ohio State Engineering Professors Michael Mills, Glenn Daehn, Maryam Ghazisaeidi, and Jenifer Locke for providing guidance throughout the maiden proposal-writing voyage.

Leonard appreciates the value of hard work, a good challenge and opportunities to be taken. “As a black woman from rural Alabama, I always want to show my community that anything is possible," she said. "All you must do is keep pushing forward and never lose faith in yourself.” 

Leonard earned her doctoral degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in metallurgical and materials engineering from the University of Alabama.

by Libby Culley, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering

Categories: ResearchFaculty