Luke N. Brewer

Luke N. Brewer received his graduate education at Northwestern University under the direction of Prof. Vinayak P. Dravid. After receiving a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering he spent several years as a staff member at the GE Global Research Center and later at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), working on microscopy, microanalysis, and materials research during his tenure at both institutions. Luke’s research has focused on the development and application of electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) methodologies, hyperspectral analysis techniques, and micromechanical testing procedures. At GE he was involved in several physical metallurgy research projects, including analyses of welding and stress corrosion cracking, as well as high-temperature alloy development. At SNL Luke’s primary research areas included developing experiments and simulation capabilities for investigating microstructural phenomena such as cyclic plasticity, fatigue cracking, phase transformations, and grain growth.

In his short career, Luke has served both MAS and the broader microanalysis community in many ways and has been honored with numerous awards for his technical achievements and service to our field. In 2002 he was awarded the Macres Award by MAS for his development of algorithms for visualizing plastic deformation using EBSD. From 2007 to 2009 he held the title of Director of MAS, and served as the MAS Program Co-Chair for the Microscopy & Microanalysis (M&M) meeting in 2009. MSA appointed him Program Chair for the M&M 2012 meeting, and he is the MSA Program Vice Chair for our meeting here in Nashville. In addition to his work with the Executive Program Group for our national meeting, he has also applied his conference organization skills to co-organize both the 2008 and 2010 MAS Topical Conferences on EBSD.

Dr. Brewer is currently an associate professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey California.