Srikanth Pilla

Professor and Director, Center for Composite Materials

Education

Postdoc | Civil Engineering, Stanford University
PhD | Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
MS | Mechanical Engineering, University of Toledo
BS | Mechanical Engineering, JNT University India

Executive Summary

Dr. Srikanth Pilla is a Professor and Director of the Center for Composite Materials at the University of Delaware (UD-CCM) with faculty appointments in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He is also the Founding Director of ‘AIM for Composites’, a Department of Energy funded Energy Frontier Research Center. Pilla earned his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a postdoctoral training from Stanford University. Prior to joining UD-CCM, Pilla held the ExxonMobil Employees Chair in Engineering at Clemson University and was the founding director of the Clemson Composites Center. Pilla also worked as an Assistant Scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Pilla’s research interests are in the fundamentals and applications of sustainable and lightweight functional materials and manufacturing. Pilla has co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed archival publications. His research is supported by NSF, DOE, USDA, DOD, and NASA, besides several foundations and industries including automotive OEMs, and their suppliers.

Pilla currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of SAE International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, Energy, Environment and Policy. Pilla’s efforts in research and engineering education have garnered him numerous awards, including the 2022 DOE-VTO Team Award, 2021 US EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, 2021 Innovision’s Sustainability Award, 2019 Composites Educator of the Year Award, 2018 SC Governor’s Young Scientist Award, 2017 Stefan Pischinger Young Industry Leadership Award, 2017 SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, and 2016 Robert J. Hocken Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer award from SME. He has supervised over 50 graduate students and postdocs, and many undergraduate students. Four of his former team members now hold faculty positions at the University of Texas-El Paso, Cleveland State University, Clemson University and Amasya University.

RESEARCH AREAS

• Composites & Advanced Materials
• Clean Energy & Environment
• Nanotechnology

FACULTY EXPERTISE

• Composites materials design and manufacturing
• sustainable and recyclable-by-design polymers and composites
• polymer processing and characterization
• informatics driven discovery of new polymers and composites
• composites recycling
• hybrid manufacturing systems
• composites 4.0