James Burns

JAMES T. BURNS has been an Assistant Professor in the Center for Electrochemical Science and Engineering within the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Virginia since 2011.  Professor Burns received a B.S degree from the United States Air Force Academy in Engineering Mechanics (Materials track) with a Mathematics minor in 2002.  He completed his M.S. and Ph.D in Material Science and Engineering at the University of Virginia in 2006 and 2010, respectively.  After his commission he served as an Aircraft Battle Damage Engineer and Assistant Aircraft Structural Integrity Program (ASIP) manager for the C-130 from 2002-2004 and he served as a Research Engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory – Materials and Manufacturing Directorate from 2006-2010. During his military service he received unit level recognition as the top Company Grade Officer, led the top Engineering Team, was an Outstanding Performer in Operation Readiness Inspections, and received the US Air Force Commendation Medal in 2009.  He currently has an active research group consisting of 8 graduate students and 4 undergraduate students.  He efforts have been distinguished by winning an AFOSR-Young Investigator Research Program grant, the Virginia Space Grant Consortium New Investigator Program Award, finalist for the ASM Henry Marion Howe Medal for best paper in Met Mater Trans A, recognized as one of the top 25 papers published in Int J Fatigue in 2012, elected to be Chairman of the organization/editorial committee of the Fatigue Damage of Structural Materials Conference, invited to the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Fatigue Congress, and Co-Chairman of International Hydrogen Conference His research focuses on the intersection of metallurgy, solid mechanics and chemistry which is currently at the forefront of several important engineering challenges. Alloy development and modeling of the fatigue/fracture behavior of complex metal components necessitates an understanding of the pertinent microstructure and damage physics.  Specifically, the interaction of localized stress/strain with environment conditions, with a particular emphasis on behavior at the crack tip.   In general, experimental data from controlled environmental testing are coupled with high fidelity characterization techniques to gain mechanistic understanding of the damage process; such knowledge is used to inform theoretical and engineering level models