Materials Science In High Demand

Phillip BradfordDr. Philip Bradford, a recipient of a Spring '10 Ph.D. degree from the
Department of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State
University, has been offered and has accepted a faculty position with the
Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science here at N.C.
State. "It is rare that a fresh Ph.D. without any post-doc experience
finds a faculty job right away. This is a testament to the quality of
graduates our department produces." says Dr. Yuntian Zhu, Bradford's Ph.D.
advisor. Dr. Bradford's dissertation addressed "Advanced Materials Based
on Carbon Nanotube Arrays, Yarns and Papers". Dr. Bradford was one of
four Doctorate recipients at the May 15th Spring graduation, including Dr.
Jeremy Gobien, Dr. Punam Pant, and Dr. Wei Wei.

Dr. Bradford will apply his background in carbon nanotubes and composite
materials to work on next generation textile materials based on high
volume fraction assemblies of carbon nanotubes. “Carbon nanotubes are
often thought of as nanoparticles, however their high aspect ratios can be
greater than fibers traditionally utilized in the textile industry.
Developing new processing methods for these nanofibers opens the door for
many advanced textile materials and products” says Bradford. He also plans
to study micro-fiber reinforced composite materials with an emphasis on
preformed textile structures.