Michael Titus

Michael Titus serves as Associate Professor of Materials Engineering at Purdue University's School of Materials Engineering within the College of Engineering. His research focuses on high-temperature structural materials for aerospace, nuclear, and propulsion systems, with emphasis on solute-defect interactions and rapid alloy development.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Materials, University of California Santa Barbara (2015)
• B.S. in Engineering Physics, The Ohio State University (2010)

Professor Titus' research integrates atomic-scale defect characterization with high-throughput experimentation to accelerate alloy discovery. His group investigates solute interactions with stacking faults, grain boundaries, and phase transformations in Ni-based superalloys, refractory alloys, and high-entropy systems. Key methodologies include first-principles calculations, thermodynamic modeling, and experimental validation of oxidation and deformation mechanisms at extreme temperatures.

Recent publications reveal a strong focus on HAYNES 244 superalloy deformation mechanisms, Suzuki segregation phenomena, and FAIR data infrastructure for materials science. His work bridges fundamental defect thermodynamics with industrial applications in gas turbines and rocket nozzles, increasingly incorporating machine learning for alloy design.

Scientific Awards:

• Editor's Choice Award (Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 2023)
• Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship

Titus advises 10 current graduate students and has graduated 10 PhD/M.S. students since 2018, including recipients of the Magoon Graduate Teaching Award. His group participates in the Purdue Heat Treating Consortium and has secured NSF CAREER funding (2019) for solute-enhanced stacking fault research. Collaborations include Air Force Research Laboratory (Summer Faculty Fellow 2016) and IMDEA Materials Institute (Visiting Professor 2023-2024).

The Titus Research Group operates advanced characterization facilities for high-temperature deformation studies, utilizing TriBeam tomography, in-situ TEM, and computational infrastructure for multi-scale modeling of microstructure-property relationships.