Eric A. Stach
Associate Professor of Materials Engineering
Dr. Eric A Stach was employed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA where he was a Materials Staff Scientist at the National Center for Electron Microscopy, and in 2003 became a Program Leader in the Metals Program, Materials Science Division. He began his career at Purdue in the School of Materials Engineering in January 2005. In 1992, Professor Stach received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Engineering from Duke University; in 1994 he received his M.S. from the University of Washington and his Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of Virginia, both in Materials Science and Engineering.
Research Interests
The research in his group revolves around the unique ability of the transmission electron microscope (TEM) to observe the internal structure of a material at extraordinarily high spatial resolutions (< 2 �) and moderate time resolution (< 50 ms). This allows direct observation of the effect of applied stimuli (temperature, stress, electrical current, magnetic field, environment) on the structure and properties of a material. Exploitation of these capabilities is done to understand how to create nanostructured materials, as well as to determine the reliability of nanoscale systems during use. A unique new facility for in-situ TEM studies at Purdue (expected Summer 2005) will allow us to perform nanomaterial synthesis in gaseous environments inside the microscope, concomitant with high-resolution imaging. This will be exploited to study such processes as nanotube, nanowire and nanoparticle growth, catalytic activity, and chemical vapor deposition of films and nanostructures. They also continue to work to understand how nanometer length scales affect the mechanical, thermomechanical and electromechanical behavior and reliability of thin films and nanostructures, the primary research theme of his tenure at LBNL.