Dr. Megan J. Cordill—Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Abstract: Since its introduction in the early 1990s, nanoindentation has become a popular and useful technique to measure mechanical behavior, especially of small volumes. Because of nanoindentation’s popularity and ease of use, nanoindentation was heavily used for thin film mechanical behavior and eventually the backbone in the emerging field of nano- and micromechanics. The technique and instrumentation have also evolved over the past 30 years to offer high/low temperatures, displacement/load control, quasi-static/dynamic indentation, mapping, and scanning imaging. Nanoindentation, even in its basic form, is a versatile technique that can complement other characterization methods. “Fun” examples where nanoindentation can be useful in the fields of heritage science, biological materials, and machine learning will be presented. Aging of cinemagraphic film (old movie film), the mechanical behavior of scorpion stingers, and high strength steels as a model material to predict what is under an indenter tip will be explored using “normal” nanoindentation methods. These examples will illustrate that there is still much to learn about materials in all applications and we can study the mechanical behavior with even straightforward methods. No scorpions were harmed. Actually, they probably were, but scorpions are not pandas. It should be okay, right?

Biography: Prof. Dr. Megan J. Cordill (she/her/hers) is the deputy director and group leader at the Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Cordill studied materials science and engineering at Washington State University (Bachelor’s and Master’s) and at the University of Minnesota where she earned her PhD in 2007. Her research interests include thin film adhesion, nanoindentation, structure-properties relationships of thin films, as well as probing electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties using advanced in-situ techniques. Dr. Cordill has published more than 170 SCI papers, edited 4 special issues on materials science and diversity topics, and has an h-index of 27 (Scopus). She is an active member of TMS, MRS, and AVS. In 2008, Cordill was a recipient of the Lise Meitner Fellowship for post-doctoral research in Austria. In 2020 she placed 2nd for the prestigious Houska Prize, Austria’s largest private prize for applied research. More recently Dr. Cordill is a 2022 Brimacombe Medalist and was honored with the 2024 Materials Processing and Manufacturing Division’s Distinguished Service Award, both from TMS.