Dr. Aeriel Murphy-Leonard joining department as Assistant Professor
Dr. Aeriel Murphy-Leonard has accepted an offer to join the Department of Materials Science and Engineering as an Assistant Professor beginning in Autumn 2020. A native of Alabama, she completed her undergraduate education in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alabama. Upon graduation, Aeriel worked in Research and Design at Alstom Inc in the corrosion research laboratories.
Dr. Murphy-Leonard earned her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in November 2018. Her thesis work focused on Mg alloys which are actively under research and development for a variety of transportation applications. During this period, she led and worked on many teams aimed at increasing the number of underrepresented minorities in engineering, including developing and implementing a leadership camp for female engineering students in Monrovia, Liberia.
Since earning her PhD, Aeriel has been a National Research Council (NRC) post-doctoral research fellow at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. Dr. Murphy-Leonard's research interests are directed towards developing microstructure-property-performance relationships in lightweight metallic materials. She is utilizing advanced characterization techniques for these studies, including extended fatigue experiments, in situ scanning electron microscopy, and high-energy diffraction microscopy. She is currently studying additively manufactured metallic materials.
Dr. Murphy-Leonard's research in metallic materials and the novel processing methods are synergistic with important thrust areas in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, including advanced characterization and additive manufacturing. Aerial will complete her NRC post-doctoral research fellowship at NRL before relocating to The Ohio State University in the summer of 2020.
Aeriel enjoys baking, traveling, and reading. She also runs a lifestyle blog titled AerielViews aimed at young graduate and professional students.
