DAN THOMA | Director
Dr. Thoma joined the Grainger Institute for Engineering as Director in June 2015. Prior to that, he was the Deputy Division Leader for the Materials Science and Technology Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). From 2005 to 2013, he was the Director of LANL’s Materials Design Institute, a collaborative educational research program with the UC Davis College of Engineering, where he is an adjunct professor. He received all of his degrees in Metallurgical Engineering—his BS from the University of Cincinnati and his MS and PhD from UW-Madison. Dr. Thoma’s research and technical efforts have been devoted to alloying theory, the thermodynamics and kinetics of phase transformations, and property response as a function of microstructural evolution. In varying capacities, he has served within The Minerals, Metals, Materials Society (TMS), the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME), the Federation of Materials Societies (FMS), and the United Engineering Foundation (UEF). He received Distinguished Service Awards from both TMS (2007) and AIME (2011), LANL’s 2007 Fellow’s Prize for Leadership, and was US Chair for a Joint Working Group on Nuclear Materials with the UK. In recognition of his materials expertise, he was elected as a Fellow of ASM International (2008), Fellow of TMS (2018), and also received the UW-Madison College of Engineering Distinguished Achievement Award (2010).
Contact Dan: (608) 265-7953, dthoma@wisc.edu
Research Leads
Kip Ludwig
Neuroengineering Lead, Grainger Institute for Engineering Associate Professor
Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Faculty Fellows
Jennifer Choy
Grainger Institute for Engineering Assistant Professor, Sensors and Sensing
Assistant Professor, Engineering Physics
Varun Jog
Machine Learning and Optimization
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Kangwook Lee
Machine Learning and Optimization
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sangkee Min
Grainger Institute for Engineering Assistant Professor, Advanced Manufacturing
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Dimitris Papailiopoulos
Machine Learning and Optimization
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Shiva Rudraraju
Grainger Institute for Engineering Assistant Professor, Machine Learning and Optimization
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Bu Wang
Grainger Institute for Engineering Assistant Professor, Energy and Sustainability
Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Named Faculty
Jennifer Choy
Grainger Institute for Engineering Assistant Professor, Sensors and Sensing
Assistant Professor, Engineering Physics
Adrien Couet
Grainger Institute for Engineering Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor, Engineering Physics
Christian Franck
Grainger Institute for Engineering Associate Professor
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Andrea Hicks
Grainger Institute for Engineering Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Younghyun Kim
Grainger Institute for Engineering Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Kip Ludwig
Neuroengineering Lead, Grainger Institute for Engineering Associate Professor
Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Sangkee Min
Grainger Institute for Engineering Assistant Professor, Advanced Manufacturing
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Shiva Rudraraju
Grainger Institute for Engineering Assistant Professor, Machine Learning and Optimization
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Stephan Rudykh
Grainger Institute for Engineering Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Bu Wang
Grainger Institute for Engineering Assistant Professor, Energy and Sustainability
Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
