Profile

Education

• Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, 2005
• M.S., The Pennsylvania State University, 2002
• Engineering Degree, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris, 2000

Research Areas and Descriptors

• Mechanics of Materials and Micro and Nano Engineering: Experimental and analytical characterization of fracture and fatigue of small-scale materials (thin films, nanomaterials), structural reliability of MEMS/NEMS devices, and environmental effects.

Background

Dr. Pierron joined Georgia Tech in summer 2007. Prior, he was a senior engineer at the R&D center of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. in San Jose, California. There, he worked on the development of a revolutionary MEMS-based reflective flat panel display.

Research

Dr. Pierron's research group investigates the mechanical properties of small-scale materials with emphasis on the degradation properties (fracture, fatigue, creep). The scientific contribution of this research is to develop a fundamental understanding of the degradation mechanisms at the nanoscale while the engineering motivation is to assess and predict the structural reliability of devices and systems fabricated with emerging technologies. An underlying challenge is to develop experimental techniques that permit to accurately measure these properties. As an example, Dr. Pierron's group recently developed a MEMS materials testing setup that relies on electronic measurements of nanospecimen elongation. Compared to previously demonstrated MEMS that rely on high magnification images to measure elongation, this MEMS is much more versatile, allowing both in situ and ex situ testing of nanomaterials with high accuracy and precision. Dr. Pierron's research is currently sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

SEM images (and lump model) of a MEMS device dedicated to the tensile testing of nanomaterials.