David Poerschke

David Poerschke is an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering. His research focuses on understanding material evolution in complex chemical, thermal, and mechanical environments to accelerate the development of new high-performance materials.

Dr. Poerschke's research interests span multiple areas of materials science:

• Durable ceramic coatings for turbine engines, particularly focusing on resistance to calcium magnesium aluminosilicate (CMAS) corrosion
• Design, processing, and surface enhancement of multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs)
• Mitigating microstructure defects in ceramic matrix composites (CMCs)
• Understanding anion effects in alloy hot corrosion
• Thermodynamics and kinetics of materials in extreme environments

His research group maintains approximately 1250 sq. ft. of dedicated research space with specialized equipment including vacuum annealing furnaces, arc melters, thermal analysis systems, and spark plasma sintering systems. The group is supported by various federal agencies, often with industrial collaboration.

Dr. Poerschke is an active educator, teaching key courses in the Materials Science curriculum including:

• MATS 3001: Thermodynamics of Materials
• MATS 3011: Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering
• MATS 4301W: Materials Processing

He has successfully advised numerous PhD students to completion, including recent graduates Yueh-Cheng Yu, Brady Bresnahan, Atharva Chikhalikar, Koen Verrijt, and Yu-Hsuan Lin. He is currently recruiting new graduate students to join his research group.