Dr. Cochran is a Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His long-time association with Georgia Tech began as student receiving his B.S. and M.S. from the School of Ceramic Engineering. After receiving his Ph.D. from Ohio State University in Ceramic Engineering (1971) he returned to Tech joining the faculty ranks where he ultimately served as the B. Mifflin Hood Professor and Associate Chair in the School of MSE.  Dr. Cochran's primary focus is now research oriented where he concentrates on a variety of processing techniques coupled with reactive sintering to fabricate net shape alloys, intermetallics and ceramics of controlled microstructure to provide optimized properties.

Current research focuses on processing/properties of alloy honeycomb fabricated by direct reduction of extruded oxide powders, supported by DARPA & ONR for thermal management and lightweight structural applications. Most recently, extrusion technology of reactive materials has been extended to low cost single step fabrication of layered SOFCs. Current linear cellular alloy (LCA) applications are based on high performance, high strain rate properties and includes capsules for energetic materials (munitions) and multifunctional lightweight armor. Fabrication techniques for new transducer designs are being developed in conjunction with Bob Newnham’s group to include linear piezoelectric acoustic structures with multimode directional properties.  Reactive processing of nitrides is resulting in net shape fabrication of intermetallics (MoSiB) for turbine blade applications.