Nikhilesh Chawla

Associate Dean for Research and Ransburg Professor, Purdue University

Nikhilesh Chawla is the Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the College of Engineering at Purdue University and Ransburg Professor in the School of Materials Engineering at Purdue University. He joined Purdue in 2020, after previously serving as Founding Director of the Center for 4D Materials Science and Fulton Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Arizona State University. Prof. Chawla received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1997. He has served as the inaugural Associate Dean for Engineering in Indianapolis, Acting Head of the School of Materials Engineering, and Co-Director of the Semiconductor Degree Programs at Purdue.

Prof. Chawla’s research is in the area Four-Dimensional (4D) materials science with a particular emphasis on the deformation behavior of advanced materials at bulk and small length scales. He has co-authored over 320 refereed journal publications (Google Scholar h-index of 71) and over 620 presentations in these areas. He has close to 18,400 citations to his work. He is the author of the textbook Metal Matrix Composites (co-authored with K.K. Chawla), published by Springer.

Prof. Chawla is a Fellow of the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (TMS) as well as a Fellow of ASM International. He is the recipient of the Innovation in Materials Characterization Award (Materials Research Society, 2024), He’s also won the National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award. Prof. Chawla was an editor for Materials Science and Engineering A published by Elsevier between 2012-2024 (2022 Impact Factor of 6.4). He also serves on the Editorial Boards of Materials Characterization and Materials Chemistry and Physics.