Biography
Dr. Atwater’s education reflects his diverse engineering interests and emphasis on multidisciplinary and applied engineering. His varied experiences in manufacturing, materials, and design are incorporated throughout his work, and he teaches and conducts research with an emphasis both on fundamental scientific inquiry and near-term practical application. This approach has guided the development of patented processes for creating bulk nanofibrous carbon components through one-step processing and the production of micro and nanoporous metallic foams through scalable powder metallurgy techniques. He has additional experience in the stabilization and design of nanocrystalline alloys and employs mechanical alloying for the development of structural and functional applications. Ongoing interests include applications in catalysis, heat pipes, electrodes, and other functional components. He is a textbook author, CAREER grant recipient, and the Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Distinguished Alumni award recipient. He is equally comfortable in a cleanroom, a classroom, or a machine shop.
Specialty Areas
- Porous Metals/Metallic Foams
- Carbon Nanofiber Synthesis and Application
- Nanocrystalline/Nanostructured Alloys
Featured Publications
- Mark A. Atwater. Materials and Manufacturing: An Introduction to How They Work and Why It Matters. McGraw-Hill Education. 832 pages. (2018)
- Hadi Miyanaji, Da Ma, Mark A. Atwater, Kristopher A. Darling, Vincent H. Hammond, Christopher B. Williams. Binder Jetting Additive Manufacturing of Copper Foam Structures. Additive Manufacturing; IN PRESS
- Mark A. Atwater, Sean J. Fudger, Christopher B. Nelson*, B. Chad Hornbuckle, Steven J. Knauss*, Samuel A. Brennan**, Kristopher A. Darling. Multi-stage pore development in Ag foams by the reduction of Ag2O and CuO mixtures. Materials and Design; 186, 108273, pp. 1-8 (2020)
- Invited Contribution: Steven J. Knauss*, Samuel A. Brennan**, Mark A. Atwater. In-Situ Formation of Carbon Nanofiber Hybrid Architectures for Functional Devices. MRS Advances; 4(33-34), pp. 1869-1875 (2019)
- Invited Contribution: Mark A. Atwater. Reconsidering Functional Powder Metallurgy with Intraparticle Porosity. Metal Powder Report; 74(5), pp. 251-254 (2019)
- Steven Knauss*, Laura Guevara**, Mark Atwater. Enhanced performance of bimetallic Co-Pd catalysts prepared by mechanical alloying. Metals; 9(3), 335 pp. 1-10 (2019)
- Koushik Sikdar, Avik Mahata, Somraj Chakravarty, Mark A. Atwater, Debdas Roy, Carl C. Koch. Effect of B on the thermal stabilization of cryomilled nanocrystalline Cu-Al alloy. Materialia; 5, 100253, pp. 1-7 (2019)
- Mark A. Atwater, Laura N. Guevara**, Steven J. Knauss*. Multifunctional Porous Catalyst Produced by Mechanical Alloying. Materials Research Letters; 7(4), pp. 131-136 (2019)
- Mark A. Atwater, Thomas L. Luckenbaugh, B. Chad Hornbuckle, Kristopher A. Darling. Solid State Foaming of Nickel, Monel and Copper by the Reduction and Expansion of NiO and CuO Dispersions. Advanced Engineering Materials; 20(9), 1800302 (pp. 1-10) (2018)
- Invited Contribution: Mark A. Atwater, Laura N. Guevara**, Kris A. Darling, Mark A. Tschopp. Solid State Porous Metal Production: A Review of the Capabilities, Characteristics and Challenges. Advanced Engineering Materials; 20(7), 1700766 (pp. 1-33) (2018)
- Laura Guevara**, Roger Welsh*, Mark A. Atwater. Parametric Effects of Mechanical Alloying on Carbon Nanofiber Catalyst Production in the Ni-Cu System. Metals; 8(4), 286, pp. 1-14 (2018)
- Invited Contribution: Mark A. Atwater. Getting more porosity from metal powder foams through intraparticle expansion. Metal Powder Report; 72(6), pp. 392-396 (2017)
- Mark A. Atwater, Roger J. Welsh*, David S. Edwards*, Laura N. Guevara**, Christopher B. Nelson*, Ben T. Stone*. Multiscale design of nanofibrous carbon aerogels: Synthesis, properties and comparisons with other low-density carbon materials. Carbon; 124, pp. 588-598 (2017)
- Laura N. Guevara**, Christopher B. Nelson*, Gaurav Hans**, Cammie L. Atwater, Mark A. Atwater. Effects of milling time on the development of porosity in Cu by the reduction of CuO. AIMS Materials Science; 4(4), pp. 939-955 (2017)
- Mark A. Atwater, Thomas L. Luckenbaugh, B. Chad Hornbuckle, Kristopher A. Darling. Advancing commercial feasibility of intraparticle expansion for solid state metal foams by the surface oxidation and room temperature ball milling of copper. Journal of Alloys and Compounds. 724, pp. 258-266 (2017)
- Mark A. Tschopp, Efraín Hernández-Rivera, Mark A. Atwater, Kiran N. Solanki, Kris A. Darling. A thermodynamic and kinetic-based grain growth model for nanocrystalline materials: Parameter sensitivity analysis and model extension. Computational Materials Science. 131, pp. 250-265 (2017)
- Mark A. Atwater, Roger J. Welsh*, David S. Edwards*. Direct synthesis of nanofibrous nonwoven carbon components: Initial Observations, Capabilities and Challenges. Journal of Micro- and Nano-Manufacturing. 4(4), 041004 (pp. 1-8) (2016)
- Mark A. Atwater, Kris A. Darling and Mark A. Tschopp. Synthesis, characterization and quantitative analysis of porous metal microstructures: Application to microporous copper produced by solid state foaming. AIMS Materials Science; 3(2), pp. 573-590 (2016)
- Mark A. Atwater, Kris A. Darling and Mark A. Tschopp. Solid-State Foaming by Oxide Reduction and Expansion: Tailoring the Foamed Metal Microstructure in the Cu–CuO System with Oxide Content and Annealing Conditions. Advanced Engineering Materials; 18 (1), pp. 83-95 (2016)
- Laura Guevara*, Crystal Wanner*, Roger Welsh*, Mark Atwater. Using Mechanical Alloying to Create Bimetallic Catalysts for Vapor-Phase Carbon Nanofiber Synthesis. Fibers; 3 (4), pp. 394-410 (2015)
- Vincent H. Hammond, Mark A. Atwater, Kristopher A. Darling, Hoang Q. Nguyen, Laszlo J. Kecskes. Equal-channel angular extrusion of a low-density high-entropy alloy produced by high-energy cryogenic mechanical alloying. JOM; 66 (10), pp. 2021-2029 (2014)
- Arash K Mousavi, Mark A Atwater, Behnam K Mousavi, Mohammad Jalalpour, Mahmoud Reda Taha, Zayd C Leseman. Mechanical and Electrical Characterization of Entangled Networks of Carbon Nanofibers. Materials 7 (6), pp. 4845-4853 (2014)
- Mark A. Atwater, Kris A. Darling, Mark A. Tschopp. Towards reaching the theoretical limit of porosity in solid state metal foams: Intraparticle expansion as a primary and additive means to create porosity. Advanced Engineering Materials; 16 (2) pp. 190-195 (2014)
- K.A. Darling, M.A. Tschopp, B.K. VanLeeuwen, M.A. Atwater, Z. K. Liu. Mitigating grain growth in binary nanocrystalline alloys through solute selection based on thermodynamic stability maps. Computational Materials Science; 84 pp. 255-266 (2014)
- John R. Wright, Hosein Atharifar, Mark Atwater. A meta-analysis of the skills gap dilemma in today’s engineering professions. ATMAE White Paper; pp. 1-19, January, 2014.
- D Roy, BV Mahesh, MA Atwater, TE Chan, RO Scattergood, CC Koch. Grain size stability and hardness in nanocrystalline Cu–Al–Zr and Cu–Al–Y alloys. Materials Science and Engineering: A; 598 pp. 217-223 (2014)
- Mark A Atwater, Suhrit Mula, Ronald Scattergood, Carl C. Koch. Thermal Stability of Nanocrystalline Copper Alloyed with Antimony. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A; 44 (12) pp. 5611-5616 (2013)
- Kris Darling, Laszlo Kecskes, Mark Atwater, John Semones, Carl Koch, Ronald Scattergood. Thermal Stability of Nanocrystalline Ni with Y Additions. Journal of Materials Research; 28 pp. 1813-1819 (2013)
- Mark A. Atwater, Arash K. Mousavi, Jonathan Phillips, Zayd C. Leseman. Direct synthesis and characterization of a nonwoven structure comprised of carbon nanofibers. Carbon; 57 pp. 363-370 (2013)
- D. Roy, M. A. Atwater, R. O. Scattergood, C. C. Koch. Studies on thermal stability, mechanical and electrical properties of nanocrystalline Cu99.5Zr0.5 alloy. Journal of Alloys and Compounds. Journal of Alloys and Compounds; 558 pp. 44–49 (2013)
- Mark A. Atwater, Hamed Bahmanpour, Ronald O. Scattergood and Carl C. Koch. The thermal stability of nanocrystalline cartridge brass and the effect of zirconium additions. Journal of Materials Science; 48 pp. 220-226 (2013)
- M. A. Atwater, R. O. Scattergood, C. C. Koch. The stabilization of nanocrystalline copper by zirconium. Materials Science and Engineering: A; 559 pp. 250–256 (2013)
- Mark A. Atwater, Debdas Roy, Kristopher A. Darling, Brady G. Butler, Ronald O. Scattergood, and Carl C. Koch. The thermal stability of nanocrystalline copper cryogenically milled with tungsten. Materials Science and Engineering: A; 558 pp. 226–233 (2012)
- Mark A. Atwater, Kris A. Darling. A Visual Library of Stability in Binary Metallic Systems: The Stabilization of Nanocrystalline Grain Size by Solute Addition: 1. Part U.S. Army Research Laboratory Technical Report; pp. 1-70 (2012)
- Hamed Bahmanpour, Khaled M Youssef, Jelena Horky, Daria Setman, Mark A Atwater, Michael J Zehetbauer, Ronald O Scattergood, Carl C Koch. Deformation twins and related softening behavior in nanocrystalline Cu-30%Zn alloy. Acta Materialia; 60(8) pp. 3340–3349 (2012)
- S. Mula, H. Bahmanpour, M. Atwater, W. Jian, R. O. Scattergood, C. C. Koch. Thermodynamic feasibility of solid solubility extension of Nb in Cu and their thermal stability. Materials Science and Engineering: A; 539 pp. 330-336 (2012)
- Mark A. Atwater, Jonathan Phillips, Zayd C. Leseman. Accelerated growth of carbon nanofibers using physical mixtures and alloys of Pd and Co in an ethylene–hydrogen environment. Carbon; 49(4) pp. 1058-1066 (2011)
- Mark A. Atwater, Jonathan Phillips, Zayd C. Leseman. The effect of powder sintering on the palladium-catalyzed formation of carbon nanofibers from ethylene-oxygen mixtures. Carbon; 48(7) pp. 1932-1938 (2010)
- Mark A. Atwater, Jonathan Phillips, Zayd C. Leseman. Formation of carbon nanofibers and thin films catalyzed by palladium in ethylene-hydrogen mixtures. Journal of Physical Chemistry: C; 114(13) pp. 5804–5810 (2010)
- Mark A. Atwater, Jonathan Phillips, Stephen K. Doorn, Claudia C. Luhrs, Y. Fernández, J.A. Menéndez, Zayd C. Leseman . The production of carbon nanofibers and thin films on palladium catalysts from ethylene-oxygen mixtures. Carbon; 47(9) pp.2269-2280 (2009)
- Mark A. Atwater, Jonathan Phillips, Zayd C. Leseman. Controlling carbon nanofiber morphology for improved composite reinforcement. International Journal of Materials and Structural Integrity; 3(2-3) pp. 179-186 (2009)
- X Liu, M Atwater, J Wang, Q Dai, J Zou, JP Brennan, Q Huo. A study on gold nanoparticle synthesis using oleylamine as both reducing agent and protecting ligand. Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 7(9) pp. 3126-3133 (2007)
- X Liu, M Atwater, J Wang, Q Huo. Extinction coefficient of gold nanoparticles with different sizes and different capping ligands. Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 58(1) pp. 3-7 (2007)
Patents
- MA Atwater, KA Darling, MA Tschopp. Method of creating porous structures by particle expansion. Patent No.: US 10,280,485 B2 (issued May 7, 2019).
- C. Leseman, MA Atwater, J Phillips. Carbon fiber foam composites and methods for making the same. Patent No.: US 8,679,381 B1 (issued March 25, 2014).