Christopher M Wolverton

Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Jerome B. Cohen Professor of Engg, Materials Science and Engineering
Applied Physics PhD Program
Materials Science and Engineering PhD Program

Phone847/467-0593
Emailc-wolverton@northwestern.edu

21453 Citations

Research output per year

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Personal profile

Research Interests

My group's research is centered on computational materials science, and specifically first-principles quantum mechanical simulation tools. These computational tools have advanced to the point now where materials may be "synthesized virtually", with their properties predicted on a computer before ever being synthesized in a laboratory. These tools also open the field of "materials informatics" where we can use machine learning tools to explore materials datasets and discover new materials. In this work, we are working towards a goal of being able to suggest new materials in the same way that Netflix and Amazon can recommend movies or books.

While the types of materials problems amenable to these tools is extremely wide, we are currently interested in a variety of materials problems with a focus on materials for alternative energies and sustainability (hydrogen, batteries, light-weight metals, fuel cells, thermoelectrics). Current topics of interest include the discovery of novel hydrogen storage materials, phase transformations in metallic and ceramic alloys, microstructural evolution during aging, and the theoretical prediction of new materials.

Another key research interest involves methodologies for linking atomistic and microstructural length scales. Though first-principles methods are powerful, they are also computationally quite demanding. Current state-of-the-art resources limits the system sizes that one can study to around a few hundred atoms. We have worked on methods that couple first-principles with Monte Carlo methods (capable of simulating millions of atoms), phase-field microstructural models, and CALPHAD calculation of phase diagram tools. These types of hybrid methods are yielding truly predictive models of microstructural evolution and mechanical properties in novel materials.

Education/Academic qualification

Physics, PhD, University of California, Berkeley

… → 1993

Physics (summa cum laude), BS, University of Texas at Austin

… → 1987

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Grants

8 Active
16 Finished

Accelerated Discovery of Compositionally Complex Alloys for Direct Thermal Energy Conversion

Snyder, G. J. & Wolverton, C. M.

Stanford University, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Department of Energy

9/23/19 → 3/31/22

Project: Research project

Wolverton Subproject for CHiMaD

Wolverton, C. M.

National Institute of Standards and Technology

1/1/19 → 12/31/23

Project: Research project

MaterialEyes: A reverse image search tool for materials images

Wolverton, C. M.

UChicago Argonne, LLC, Argonne National Laboratory, Department of Energy

12/1/18 → 9/30/20

Project: Research project

Wolverton Subproject for Center for Electrolyte-Electrode Interface Science (CEEIS)

Wolverton, C. M.

UChicago Argonne, LLC, Argonne National Laboratory, Department of Energy

8/1/18 → 7/31/20

Project: Research project

Scientific Autonomous Reasoning Agent (SARA) integrating Materials Theory, Experiment and Computation

Wolverton, C. M.

Cornell University, Air Force Office of Scientific Research

2/15/18 → 2/14/23

Project: Research project