David Mitchell is an associate professor with a joint appointment in the Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace departments. He is a faculty member of the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research. Prior to joining UCF, Mitchell was senior R&D materials scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He was a strategic hire at ORNL, where he built new research laboratories, advanced manufacturing capability, and a team to create the next generation of ultra-high temperature, extreme environment ceramic, composite and interpenetrating phase composite materials for use in aerospace, hypersonic, aero-engine, nuclear and advanced energy applications.

Mitchell received his doctoral degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Florida and performed his doctoral research at ORNL on a High Temperature Materials Laboratory (HTML) Graduate Research Fellowship. He has been performing research and development of extreme environment materials, including ceramics and ceramic matrix composites, for more than 20 years at companies such as GE Research, Boeing Research, Siemens Energy, and ORNL, and has more than 50 patents. Mitchell will apply his experience developing novel materials and advanced manufacturing to create the next generation of hypersonic vehicle materials with colleagues in UCF MSE and MAE.

• Ceramics
• Ceramic Matrix Composites
• Interpenetrating Phase Composite Materials
• Refractory Metals
• Harsh Environment Materials
• Hypersonics

• Lamm, B. W., & Mitchell, D. J., Chemical Vapor Deposition of Zirconium Compounds: A Review. Coatings 2023, 13, 266. https://doi.org/10.3390/ coatings13020266
• Cramer, C. L., Yoon, B., Lance, M. J., Cakmak, E., Campbell, Q. A., & Mitchell, D. J. (2022). Additive Manufacturing of C/C-SiC Ceramic Matrix Composites by Automated Fiber Placement of Continuous Fiber Tow in Polymer with Pyrolysis and Reactive Silicon Melt Infiltration. Journal of Composites Science, 6(12), 359.
• Lamm, B. W., McMurray, J. W., Cakmak, E., Lance, M. J., & Mitchell, D. J. (2022). Leveraging computational thermodynamics to guide SiC-ZrC chemical vapor deposition process development. Surface and Coatings Technology, 444, 128672.
• Mitchell, D. J., & Mecholsky Jr, J. J. (2022). Improving the damage tolerance of Si3N4 by forming laminate composites with refractory metals. Journal of Composite Materials;56(16), 2525-2550.
• Ramanuj, V., Sankaran, R., Jolly, B., Schumacher, A., & Mitchell, D. (2022). Chemical vapor infiltration of additively manufactured preforms: Pore‐resolved simulations and experimental validation. Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 105(4), 2421-2441.
• Aguirre, T. G., Cramer, C. L., & Mitchell, D. J. (2022). Review of additive manufacturing and densification techniques for the net-and near net-shaping of geometrically complex silicon nitride components. Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 42(3), 735-743.
• Aguirre, T. G., Lamm, B. W., Cramer, C. L., & Mitchell, D. J. (2021). Zirconium-diboride silicon-carbide composites: A review. Ceramics International, 48(6):7344-7361.
• Kane, K. A., Pint, B. A., Mitchell, D., & Haynes, J. A. (2021). Oxidation of ultrahigh temperature ceramics: kinetics, mechanisms, and applications. Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 41(13), 6130-6150.

• Invited speaker – USAF Senior Executive Service Additive Manufacturing Summit
• Invited panelist – US Government Research On Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics Workshop
• Organizer – DOE AMO-FE-NE Workshop on Materials for Harsh Service Conditions
• National Academy of Engineering, Frontiers of Engineering Young Scientist Award
• High Temperature Materials Laboratory Graduate Research Fellowship, ORNL

• ASM – Secretary of Oak Ridge, TN chapter
• American Ceramic Society (ACerS) – Founding member of Oak Ridge, TN chapter
• NASA Advanced Manufacturing for Thermal Protection Systems (AMTPS) committee
• NASA Propulsion and Power Systems Alliance committee

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