Rigoberto “Gobet” Advincula has been named Governor’s Chair of Advanced and Nanostructured Materials at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee.

Rigoberto Advincula

“I am honored to join both ORNL and UT as a Governor’s Chair and excited to be able to contribute to the success and prestige of both institutions,” Advincula said.

The Governor’s Chair program fuels a research partnership between UT and ORNL by attracting top talent to advance key science areas.

The US Navy has chosen a UT professor to lead one of its Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) programs for the first time in the 30-year history of the initiative.

Suresh Babu, the UT–Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair for Advanced Manufacturing, will lead a team that will focus on properties, defects, and instabilities in advanced manufactured alloys, an area of great importance to the Navy.

According to the Office of Naval Research, the award will total roughly $1.5 million a year for three years and be extendable to five years.

“To be leading the first team from UT picked to handle a MURI project is quite an honor,” said Babu, who is also a professor in UT’s Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering. “The basic research we are doing will focus on addressing solid stabilities in metal alloys subjected to thermo-mechanical transients typical of additive manufacturing, also referred to as 3D printing, through advanced in-situ and ex-situ measurements.”

The Office of Research and Engagement is pleased to celebrate this week, not only the following recognitions from around campus, but an abundance of accomplishments within our own team.