The lecture will also address some of the challenges to creating the materials innovation infrastructure that lies at the heart of the Materials Genome Initiative and explore new ways of utilizing materials data. The essential linkage between models and measurements indicates that many of the conceptual challenges with materials data can be most efficiently resolved using methods that address the role of materials models as the core concept of the scientific method. Closer examination of this insight and the manner in which we collect and disseminate data are key to overcoming these challenges.

Dr. James A. Warren received an NRC post-doctoral appointment at NIST in 1992.  He joined the Metallurgy Division after receiving his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which was preceded by an A.B. (also in Physics) from Dartmouth College. In 1995, with three other junior NIST staff members, he co-founded the NIST Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science, which he has directed since 2001.  From  2005-2013 he was the Leader of the Thermodynamics and Kinetics Group.  His research has been broadly concerned with developing both models of materials phenomena, and the tools to enable the solution of these models. Specific foci over the years has included solidification, pattern formation, grain structures, creep, diffusion, wetting, and spreading in metals. In 2010-2011, Dr. Warren was part of the ad hoc committee within the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) that crafted the founding whitepaper on the Administration’s Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), and has served as the Executive Secretary of the NSTC MGI Subcommittee since 2012.