Naresh Thadhani is a Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech (GT). He joined the GT faculty in 1992, after six-years in the Center for Explosives Technology Research at New Mexico Tech, and two years as a post-doc at CalTech. He received his B.E. in 1980 from the Malaviya National Institute of Technology in Jaipur, India, M.S. from South Dakota School of Mines, and Ph.D. from New Mexico Tech, all in Metallurgical Engineering.

Dr. Thadhani’s research focusses on the fundamental mechanisms of physical, chemical, and mechanical changes under high-pressure shock-compression, and the deformation and fracture response of metals, ceramics, polymers, and composites subjected to ballistic impact and high-strain-rate loading. He has led significant advancements in the understanding of shock-induced phase transformations and mechanical properties of bulk metallic glasses; design, development, and characterization of structural energetic materials, and the shock-compression response of highly heterogeneous (granular) materials through meso-scale computational simulations and experimental studies using novel optomechanical pressure sensors and interferometry approaches.

At Georgia Tech, he has developed a state-of-the-art high-strain-rate laboratory which includes 80-mm and 7.62-mm diameter single-stage gas-guns, and a laser-accelerated thin-foil set-up, to perform impact experiments at velocities of 70 to 1200 m/s. The experiments employ time-resolved diagnostics to monitor shock-initiated events with nanosecond resolution employing piezoelectric and piezoresistive stress gauges, multi-beam VISAR interferometry, multiplexed Photonic-Doppler-Velocimetry, and high-speed digital imaging, combined with the ability to recover impacted materials for post-mortem microstructural characterization and determination of other properties. He also has computational capabilities employing continuum simulations for design of experiments and development and validation of constitutive equations, as well as for meso-scale discrete particle numerical analysis (using CTH and ALE3D codes) to determine the effects observed during shock compression of heterogeneous materials.

Dr. Thadhani has advised 15 visiting scientists/post-docs; 25 Ph.D and 18 M.S degree students; and mentored 50+ undergraduate researchers. His current group includes 7 Ph.D. students, 1 Research Engineer, and 4 undergraduate research assistants. He has attracted research funding exceeding ~$20M from federal agencies including the AFOSR, ARO, DARPA, DTRA, ONR, NSF, as well as from several national DoE and DoD laboratories and industries. He has co-edited 12 books/proceedings, published more than 170 paper papers in refereed journals (including several invited review articles) and 150 in conference proceedings, and presented more than 150 invited talks/seminars. He has served or is serving on review boards including the National Academy of Science panel at the Army Research Laboratory (2015, 2016, and 2018), and academic program reviews at Penn State University, Universities of Texas at Austin, Dallas, and at El Paso, University of Notre Dame, University of Florida, and the University of California multi-campus national lab collaborative research program review.

Dr. Thadhani is recipient of 2018 TMS Leadership award, Fellow of ASM International and American Physical Society, and Academician of EuroMediterranean Academy of Arts and Sciences.