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Dan Thoma

Dan Thoma

Professor
gscholar website
lab website

Dr. Thoma joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the inaugural Director of the Grainger Institute for Engineering (GIE). The GIE was an accelerator within the College of Engineering to mature scientific and technical areas with significant societal impact. Currently, he is a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to UW, he was the Deputy Division Leader for the Materials Science and Technology (MST) Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). This division focused on advanced manufacturing and novel materials research. His technical efforts have been devoted to new manufacturing methods and materials by design, with a particular focus on property response as a function of microstructural evolution during phase transformations. Dr. Thoma has been active within materials professional societies, where he was the president of The Minerals, Metals, Materials Society (TMS) in 2003, the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) in 2008, and the Federation of Materials Societies (FMS) in 2009-2010. His expertise in materials and manufacturing was recognized in 2008 by being elected as a Fellow of ASM International. In 2019, he was elected Fellow of TMS. Dr. Thoma was awarded the AIME Honorary Member recognition in 2021, the highest award from the 150+ year old Founder Engineering Society.

Department

Materials Science & Engineering

Contact

2620, Engineering Hall
1415 Engineering Dr
Madison, WI
p: (608) 262-3751

Featured news

Tapping a new toolbox, engineers buck tradition in new high-performing heat exchanger

May 6, 2025

  • PhD 1992, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • MS 1988, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • BS 1986, University of Cincinnati

  • Autonomous materials Research
  • Metal additive manufacturing
  • Alloy design and development
  • Advanced materials for energy applications
  • Phase transformations for functional materials
  • Thermal analysis and dilatometry

  • 2023 WARF, WARF Innovator Award Finalist (Nominated)
  • 2023 University of Wisconsin-Madison, Vilas Associate Award
  • 2022 College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harvey D. Spangler Professorship of Engineering
  • 2021 AIME, AIME Honorary Member Award
  • 2019 TMS, TMS Fellowship
  • 2015 College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Grainger Institute for Engineering Professorship
  • 2011 AIME, AIME Distinguished Service Award
  • 2010 College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Distinguished Achievement Award
  • 2008 ASM International, Fellow of ASM International
  • 2007 The Minerals, Metals, Materials Society (TMS), Distinguished Service Award
  • 2007 Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Fellows Prize for Leadership
  • 2003 Defense Programs Award for Excellence
  • 2000 Defense Programs Award for Excellence
  • 1997 Target Fabrication and Development Team, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Distinguished Performance Award
  • 1996 Los Alamos National Laboratory, Outstanding Performance Award
  • 1992 Los Alamos National Laboratory, Director’s Funded Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • 1986 Alpha Sigma Mu, Alpha Sigma Mu Membership
  • 1984 NASA, Special Achievement Award for Outstanding Service

  • Sun, S., Rankouhi, B., Thoma, D., Jentz, I. W., Anderson, M. H., & Qian, X. (2025). 3D topology optimization and additive manufacturability of two-fluid heat exchangers. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 236, 126299.
  • Hatler, C., Robin, I., Kim, H., Curtis, N., Sun, B., Aydogan, E., Fensin, S., Couet, A., Martinez, E., Thoma, D., & others, (2025). The path towards plasma facing components: A review of state-of-the-art in W-based refractory high-entropy alloys. Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials Science, 34, 101201.
  • Miracle, D., & Thoma, D. (2024). Autonomous research and development of structural materials--An introduction and vision. Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials Science, 33, 101188.
  • Ialovega, M., Navarro, M. X., Effenberg, F., Anderson, J., Angot, T., Bisson, R., Forest, C., Kreter, A., Rankouhi, B., Sridharan, K., & others, (2024). Cold Spray Deposition and Additive Manufacturing of Fusion First Wall Materials. Bulletin of the American Physical Society.
  • Subedi, S. C., Thoma, D., & Suresh, K. (2024). Deformation constrained support-structure optimization for laser powder bed fusion. Additive Manufacturing, 89, 104294.
  • Newman, D., Faue, P., Nishanth, F., Rankouhi, B., Pfefferkorn, F. E., Thoma, D., & Severson, E. (2024). Development of Solid Synchronous Reluctance Rotors With Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing. IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.
  • Euser, V., Mangan, A., Jones, D., Martinez, D., Steckley, T., Agrawal, A., Thoma, D., & Fensin, S. (2024). Dynamic spall properties of an additively manufactured, high-entropy alloy (CoCrFeMnNi). Materialia, 33, 101998.
  • Wanni, J., Bronkhorst, C., & Thoma, D. (2024). Machine learning enhanced analysis of EBSD data for texture representation. npj Computational Materials, 10(1), 133.
  • Nelaturu, P., Hattrick-Simpers, J. R., Moorehead, M., Jambur, V., Szlufarska, I., Couet, A., & Thoma, D. (2024). Multi-principal element alloy discovery using directed energy deposition and machine learning. Materials Science and Engineering: A, 891, 145945.
  • Goh, B., Wang, Y., Nelaturu, P., Zhang, H., Moorehead, M., Duong, T., Priya, P., Thoma, D., Chaudhuri, S., Hattrick-Simpers, J., & others, (2024). Nobility vs. mobility: Insights into molten salt corrosion mechanisms of high-entropy alloys via high-throughput experiments and machine learning. Matter.

  • M E 890 - PhD Research and Thesis (Spring 2025)
  • M S & E 790 - Master's Research or Thesis (Spring 2025)
  • M S & E 990 - Research and Thesis (Spring 2025)
  • M E 890 - PhD Research and Thesis (Fall 2024)
  • M S & E 332 - Macroprocessing of Materials (Fall 2024)
  • M S & E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Fall 2024)
  • M S & E 990 - Research and Thesis (Fall 2024)
  • M E 890 - PhD Research and Thesis (Summer 2024)
  • M S & E 790 - Master's Research or Thesis (Summer 2024)
  • M S & E 990 - Research and Thesis (Summer 2024)
  • M E 601 - Special Topics in Mechanical Engineering (Spring 2024)
  • M E 890 - PhD Research and Thesis (Spring 2024)
  • M S & E 401 - Special Topics in Materials Science and Engineering (Spring 2024)
  • M S & E 790 - Master's Research or Thesis (Spring 2024)
  • M S & E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Spring 2024)
  • M S & E 990 - Research and Thesis (Spring 2024)
  • M E 890 - PhD Research and Thesis (Fall 2023)
  • M S & E 332 - Macroprocessing of Materials (Fall 2023)
  • M S & E 699 - Independent Study (Fall 2023)
  • M S & E 790 - Master's Research or Thesis (Fall 2023)
  • M S & E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Fall 2023)
  • M S & E 990 - Research and Thesis (Fall 2023)
  • M E 890 - PhD Research and Thesis (Summer 2023)
  • M S & E 890 - Pre-Dissertator's Research (Summer 2023)