Dr. Garritt J. Tucker

Education

• Ph.D. - Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA) - 2011
• B.S. - Physics & Mathematics, Westminster College (Salt Lake City, UT) - 2004

Professional Appointments

• Director | Materials Science and Engineering, Baylor University, 2025 - present
• Eula Mae and John Baugh Chair, Baylor University | Department of Physics and Astronomy, 2023 - present
• Associate Director | Point-Of-Need Innovation Center, Baylor University, 2023 - present
• Director of Graduate Studies (ME Department), Colorado School of Mines (Golden, CO) | Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2021 - 2023
• Associate Professor, Colorado School of Mines (Golden, CO) | Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2019 – 2023
• Assistant Professor, Colorado School of Mines (Golden, CO) | Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2017 – 2019
• Assistant Professor, Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA) | Department of Materials Science and Engineering, 2013 – 2017
• Postdoctoral Research Appointee, Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, NM) Computational Materials and Data Science Department, 2011 – 2013
• Graduate Research Assistant, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA) School of Materials Science and Engineering. 2005 – 2011
• EPSRI Student Intern, Sandia National Laboratories (Livermore, CA) Enabling Predictive Science Research Institute, Multiscale Mechanics of Materials, 2008

Biography

Professor Tucker joined Baylor University in the summer of 2023 as the inaugural recipient of the Eula Mae and John Baugh Endowed Chair in Physics. He also serves as the Associate Director of the Point-Of-Need Innovations Center, and is active in the new Materials Science program. Before coming to Baylor, he spent 6 years (2017-2023) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines (Golden, CO), serving as the Director of Graduate Studies and as an Associate Professor. Prior appointments also include 4 years (2013-2017) as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA), and 2 years (2011-2013) as a Postdoctoral Research Appointee at Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, NM) in the Computational Materials and Data Science group. While at Drexel, he was awarded the Outstanding Teacher Award in 2015 and the TMS Young Leader Professional Development Award in 2016.

Professor Tucker earned his Ph.D. in 2011 from the Georgia Institute of Technology (School of Materials Science and Engineering), and a B.S. in 2004 from Westminster College (Salt Lake City, UT) majoring in both Physics and Mathematics. During his time at Westminster and Georgia Tech, he received several distinctions including the Outstanding Physics Senior Award, Academic All-American (Soccer), and a Sigma Xi nomination.

Research Interests and Labs

Professor Tucker's research ambitions in the field of Materials Science are aimed at integrating high-performance computing and theory to discover the fundamental structure-property relationships of materials that will enable the predictive design of advanced materials with tunable properties. Of particular interest are materials where defects and interfacial-driven properties can be effectively tuned or controlled to enable property enhancement, such as nanostructured alloys, multicomponent laminates, materials for energy storage, 2D materials, and next-generation composites. At the core of his group’s approach is to develop collaborations and programs that effectively mesh computation with experiments to tailor functional materials, and pursue novel informatics techniques to build predictive design strategies, while unraveling complex science at the nanoscale.

* Materials Physics, Computational Materials Science, Solid-State Physics, Multiscale Modeling and Simulations, Nanostructured Materials, Emergent Materials and Manufacturing, Machine Learning, Scientific Visualization

• Computational Materials Science and Design (CMSD)
• Point-of-Need Innovation (PONI) Center

Research Advisees

• Dana Bronen (MS), 2016
• Dan Foley (PhD), 2017
• Ankit Gupta (postdoc), 2018
• Megnath Jaishi (postdoc), 2018
• Sanaz Yazdanparast (postdoc), 2019
• Satish Rajaram (PhD), 2019
• Gabriel Plummer (MS) 2018, (PhD) 2022
• Jacob Tavenner (PhD), 2022
• Jacob Cordell (PhD), 2022
• Jacob Gruber (PhD), 2024
• Steven Goldy (current PhD student)
• Aidan Raver (current PhD student)
• Mamta Silwal (current PhD student)
• Spencer Seeley (current PhD student)
• Akib Abdullah (current PhD student)
• Austin Smith (current PhD student)
• Suresh Gnawali (current postdoc)

Recent Research Funding

• Department of Energy (Basic Energy Sciences), Elucidating the Role of Pressure and Shear in Controlling Twinning in Low Symmetry Ceramics
• National Nuclear Security Administration, Advanced Characterization of Metals under Extreme Environments
• National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, Sustainable Friction Stir Additive Manufacturing (FSAM) for Waste Reduction
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Automated Computing of Materials Synthesis Frameworks
• Army Research Office, Mechanistic-Design of Multilayered Nanocomposites: Hierarchical Metal-MAX Materials for Tunable Strength and Toughness
• Office of Naval Research, Mechanism and Stability of Deformation Twinning: Toward Predictive Understanding as a Function of Chemistry and Strain Rate
• US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command | Ground Vehicle Systems Center, Data Driven Qualification Framework for Metals Additive Manufacturing
• Missile Defense Agency (SBIR-I), Quantum Computing Aided Materials Research and Development
• Army Research Office, Ascertaining the Thermo-Mechanical Mechanisms of Solute-Stabilized Nanocrystalline Alloys
• National Science Foundation, On the Mechanics of Ripplocations: A New Defect in Layered Solids
• Los Alamos National Laboratory, Investigating How Material’s Interfaces and Dislocations affects Strength
• Los Alamos National Laboratory, Frameworks for the Automation of Microstructural Fingerprinting and Fundamental Structure-Property Relationships in Metal Alloys
• National Science Foundation, Engineering Metal-MAX Multilayered Nanocomposites: Hierarchical Microstructures for Tunable Strength and Ductility
• National Science Foundation, Collaborative Research: Tailoring the Stability and Deformation of Nanocrystalline Alloys through Hierarchical Engineering