Elizabeth J. Opila

Elizabeth J. Opila is the Department Chair and Rolls Royce Commonwealth Professor of Engineering at the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science. She holds a courtesy appointment in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and directs the Rolls-Royce University Technology Center on Advanced Material Systems. Her research focuses on materials for extreme environments, including aircraft engines and energy systems, emphasizing corrosion mechanisms, high-temperature oxidation, and environmental barrier coatings. She has a Ph.D. from MIT (1991) and prior experience at NASA Glenn Research Center (1991-2010).

Her academic roles include teaching MSE courses like Thermodynamics of Materials and High Temperature Oxidation. Notable honors include the Arthur L. Friedberg Award (2021), Mercatur Fellowship (2020), and Fellowships from the American Ceramic Society and Electrochemical Society. She leads a lab exploring material behavior under extreme conditions, with a focus on ceramic matrix composites and rare-earth oxide systems.

Recent research trends include developing novel environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) for turbine blades, understanding CMAS (calcium-magnesium-aluminosilicate) interactions, and predicting material lifetimes via coupled thermodynamic and kinetic models. Her work bridges computational predictions with experimental validation, particularly in high-entropy oxides and multi-component EBC systems.

Funding includes UVA's Rolls-Royce UTC collaboration and a DURIP grant for advanced ceramic characterization tools. She collaborates widely, publishing in journals like the Journal of the American Ceramic Society and Acta Materialia. Her lab's facilities include high-temperature exposure chambers and advanced microscopy/spectroscopy setups.