Mills, Michael

Biography

Professor Michael J. Mills is the chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. 

Mills earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University in 1985. He joined Ohio State in 1994 as associate professor with tenure after a two-year research associate appointment at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a six-year appointment at Sandia National Laboratories as a senior member of the technical staff. At Ohio State, Mills is the Taine G. McDougal Professor of Engineering and also served as interim chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in 2014-2015.

Honors, awards, appointments

  • Honorary Doctorate in 2022 from the Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany.

  • Heyn Memorial Medal from German Materials Society (2021) for contributions to the field of materials science & engineering and for promoting scientific relations between U.S. and Germany
  • Appointed as chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Ohio State (2019)
  • College of Engineering’s Faculty Mentoring Award for successfully mentoring junior faculty members and creating a new peer mentorship structure within the department (2019)
  • Oleg D. Sherby Award (2019) from TMS for research in high temperature materials
  • Alexander von Humboldt Research Award (2019)
  • Fellow of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (2015)
  • Fellow of the American Society for Metals (2011)
  • Alexander Von Humboldt Research Fellowship (1996)

 

Expertise

Widely recognized for his research in the relationship between microstructure and structural properties of materials, Mills has authored or co-authored over 220 journal articles and chaired numerous international conferences. His research team utilizes advanced instruments at the Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis (CEMAS) to provide insights into the mechanical behavior of several important metallurgical systems through a detailed understanding of elementary deformation mechanisms.

Dr. Mills was ranked in the top 2% of scientists worldwide by Elsevier in 2021.

“Mike is an internationally renowned researcher in high temperature alloys, one of only 70 TMS Fellows in the U.S. and experienced in leadership in the materials field.”

- College of Engineering Dean David B. Williams.