David R. Clarke Explained

David R. Clarke
Nationality:American
Alma Mater:University of Cambridge
Doctoral Advisor:L. M. Brown
Awards:
  • James Mueller Award, ACS
  • Distinguished Life Member, ACS
  • Member, NAE
  • Fellow, APS
Field:Material Science, Engineering
Work Institution:SEAS, Harvard University

David R. Clarke is a material scientist and the inaugural Extended Tarr Family Professor of Material Science and Applied Physics at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). He is the principal investigator of the Materials Discovery and Applications Group.[1]

The American Ceramic Society (ACerS) considers Clarke's paper "On the Equilibrium Thickness of Intergranular Glass Phases in Ceramic Materials" (1987) one of the 11 best papers in 110 years of publications on ceramics and glasses. Clarke was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1999 "for research on the role of grain boundary phases and their importance to the engineering of technical ceramics". He became a Distinguished Life Member of ACerS in 2009.

Education and career

Clarke received his bachelor's degree in applied science from the University of Sussex, England in 1968 and joined the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) as a scientific officer. He completed his doctoral degree in 1974, from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge and rejoined NPL to work on fiber composites.

Subsequently, he moved to the US and the University of California, Berkeley where he worked from 1974 to 1977 as a lecturer. Afterwards, he held various positions at prestigious institutions such as Rockwell International Science Center (1977-1982), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, 1982-1983) and IBM Research Division (1983-1990), where he became senior manager of materials.

In 1990, he was appointed as both Professor of Materials and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He served as the department chair of the Materials Department at UCSB from 1991 to 1998. He served as the associate dean of the College of Engineering from 2002 to 2004.

In 2009, Clarke was appointed as Gordon McKay Professor of Materials and Applied Physics at Harvard University.[2] He is the inaugural holder of the position of Extended Tarr Family Chair of Materials and Applied Physics at Harvard University.

Research and teaching

Clarke studies the mechanical behavior of materials including ceramics, semiconductors,[3] metals, polymers[4] and thermoelectrics.

He is best known for his work on the fundamentals, properties and applications of ceramics.[3] He established the existence of thin glassy phases at boundaries between crystalline grains in ceramics, work now regarded as foundational to understanding the behavior of advanced ceramics at high temperatures. The microstructural stability of the intergranular phase controls temperature- and electrically-related properties of technical ceramics.[5]

In 1987 Clarke proposed that nanometer-thick intergranular films (IGFs) in ceramics exhibit an equilibrium thickness. He applied a model adapted from the wetting community to explain their existence and the consequences for their properties at high-temperatures. The equilibrium thickness represents a balance among attractive and repulsive interactions at interfaces.[6] Clarke proposed a model for the discovery of low thermal conductivity ceramics, leading to the identification of a wide range of novel candidates.[7] [8]

Clarke developed novel techniques in piezospectroscopy which are used worldwide to measure stress in materials.[9] Significant contributions include the observation of dislocations at crack tips in silicon,[10] [11] the loss of crystalline structure in silicon and germanium following indentation,[12] [13] and identifying a failure mechanisms in thin films.[14]

His group has studied thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) on turbine blades used in aircraft. They have explored TBC's thermal conductivity and the conditions leading to the degradation and failure of TBCs.[15]

Another area of research is dielectric elastomers, soft materials with good insulating properties that could potentially be used in soft robots. Clarke's lab have combined materials in a way that avoids two problems that limit the design of electrically-controlled soft actuators: high voltage and pre-stretching.[16] [17]

Clarke is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, and a recipient of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Senior Scientist Award. He was listed as an author of one of the 11 best papers in the 110 year history of publications on ceramics and glasses. He has been an Editor of the Annual Review of Materials Research[18] and is an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Ceramic Society. He has over twenty patents.[19]

Over the years he has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate level courses in materials, ranging from introductory classes to courses in phase equilibria, optical materials, phase transformations, thermodynamics and composites. He currently teaches seminars on “Glass” and “Materials, Energy and Society” at the undergraduate Freshman level, and the required course on “Fundamentals of Heat Transfer” course for students studying Mechanical Engineering at Harvard University.

Awards and honors

Selected publications

Notes and References

  1. Web site: David R. Clarke . Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences . en.
  2. News: Bradt . Steve . David Clarke appointed as professor of materials in School of Engineering and Applied Sciences . 7 August 2024 . Harvard Gazette . 4 November 2008.
  3. News: David Clarke appointed McKay Professor of Materials . Harvard SEAS News . November 7, 2008.
  4. Web site: David R. Clarke . clarke.seas.harvard.edu . en.
  5. Book: Dufour . L. C. . Monty . C. . Surfaces and Interfaces of Ceramic Materials . 6 December 2012 . Springer Science & Business Media . 978-94-009-1035-5 . en.
  6. French . Roger H. . Parsegian . V. Adrian . Podgornik . Rudolf . Rajter . Rick F. . Jagota . Anand . Luo . Jian . Asthagiri . Dilip . Chaudhury . Manoj K. . Chiang . Yet-ming . Granick . Steve . Kalinin . Sergei . Kardar . Mehran . Kjellander . Roland . Langreth . David C. . Lewis . Jennifer . Lustig . Steve . Wesolowski . David . Wettlaufer . John S. . Ching . Wai-Yim . Finnis . Mike . Houlihan . Frank . von Lilienfeld . O. Anatole . van Oss . Carel Jan . Zemb . Thomas . Long range interactions in nanoscale science . Reviews of Modern Physics . 11 June 2010 . 82 . 2 . 1887–1944 . 10.1103/RevModPhys.82.1887 . 7 August 2024. 1721.1/60856 . free .
  7. Book: Ohji . Tatsuki . Singh . Mrityunjay . Engineered Ceramics: Current Status and Future Prospects . 1 February 2016 . John Wiley & Sons . 978-1-119-10040-9 . 428 . en.
  8. Book: Supriyo . Roy . Kumar . Bose, Goutam . Advanced Surface Coating Techniques for Modern Industrial Applications . 18 September 2020 . IGI Global . 978-1-7998-4871-4 . 100 . en.
  9. News: D'gama . Alissa M. . SEAS Appoints Two New Professors News The Harvard Crimson . 7 August 2024 . The Harvard Crimson . November 26, 2008.
  10. Book: Gumbsch . Peter . Pippan . Reinhard . Multiscale Modelling of Plasticity and Fracture by Means of Dislocation Mechanics . 30 January 2011 . Springer Science & Business Media . 978-3-7091-0283-1 . 43 . en.
  11. Book: Ishizaki . Kozo . Niihara . K. . Isotani . M. . Ford . R. G. . Grain Boundary Controlled Properties of Fine Ceramics: JFCC Workshop Series: Materials Processing and Design . 6 December 2012 . Springer Science & Business Media . 978-94-011-1878-1 . en.
  12. Book: Tonkov . E. Yu . High Pressure Phase Transformations Handbook 3 . 1 April 1996 . CRC Press . 978-2-88449-017-7 . 174 . en.
  13. Book: Bradt . R. C. . Brookes . C. A. . Routbort . J. L. . Plastic Deformation of Ceramics . 11 November 2013 . Springer Science & Business Media . 978-1-4899-1441-5 . en.
  14. Harvey . Christopher M. . Wang . Bin . Wang . Simon . Spallation of thin films driven by pockets of energy concentration . Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics . 1 December 2017 . 92 . 1–12 . 10.1016/j.tafmec.2017.04.011 . 7 August 2024 . 0167-8442.
  15. Book: Amirhossein . Pakseresht . Omid . Sharifahmadian . Handbook of Research on Tribology in Coatings and Surface Treatment . 25 March 2022 . IGI Global . 978-1-7998-9685-2 . 2 . en.
  16. News: Burrows . Leah . Artificial muscle for soft robotics: low voltage, high hopes . 7 August 2024 . Harvard SEAS News . July 20, 2016.
  17. News: Burrows . Leah . Multimaterial 3D printing with a twist . Harvard SEAS News . January 18, 2023.
  18. Clarke . David R. . Preface by David R. Clarke . Annual Review of Materials Research . August 2001 . 31 . 1 . annurev.mr.31.010101.100001 . 10.1146/annurev.mr.31.010101.100001 . 29 September 2021.
  19. Web site: David R. Clarke Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications - Justia Patents Search . patents.justia.com . 7 August 2024.
  20. Web site: Distinguished Life Membership of ACerS . The American Ceramic Society . 26 July 2024.
  21. News: David Clarke named life member of the American Ceramic Society . Harvard SEAS News . November 13, 2009.
  22. Web site: ACerS 110th Anniversary Celebration: 11 best papers - The American Ceramic Society ceramic engineering . 2008 . The American Ceramic Society . 26 July 2024.
  23. News: Inta . Edith . NATIONAL CERAMIC GROUP HONORS UCSB SCIENTISTS . The Current . 20 July 1999 . en.
  24. Web site: Van Horn Lecture Series Case School of Engineering Case Western Reserve University . Case School of Engineering . en . 17 April 2019.
  25. Web site: Dr. David R. Clarke . National Academy of Engineering . en.
  26. Web site: Richard M. Fulrath Award History of Awardees . The American Ceramic Society.
  27. Web site: Ross Coffin Purdy Award History of Awardees . The American Ceramic Society.

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