Wagoner, Robert

Biography

Robert H. Wagoner is Professor Emeritus, Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE).  He held the following positions at Ohio State:

  • George R. Smith Chair in MSE and in Mechanical Engineering
  • Department Chair, Materials Science and Engineering
  • Distinguished Professor of Engineering
  • Distinguished Scholar, Ohio State
Before joining Ohio State in 1983, he held the following positions:
  • Staff Research Scientist at the General Motors Research Laboratories
  • NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford (England)

Since retirement in 2013, Dr. Wagoner continues research as a Principal Investigator for  the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Sciences Division.  He also serves as a Consultant and Expert Witness to industry with regard to mechanical engineering and materials engineering, particularly regarding die forming, sheet materials, medical devices and automotive applications. (See list of consultancies and expert witnessing experience to the left.)

Professional Recognition

Dr. Wagoner was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 1995, an honor bestowed on one American engineer out of 1,000.

He also was honored by being selected Fellow or equivalent (the top honor) of five diverse professional engineering professional societies:
  • TMS (The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society)
  • ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineering)
  • ASM International (Materials)
  • SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers)
  • AIME (American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers)

Education

B.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering, The Ohio State University (1974)

M.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering, The Ohio State University (1975)

Ph.D. degree in Metallurgical Engineering, The Ohio State University (1976) 

NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford, England, Department of Metallurgy and Science of Materials

Expertise

Expert Witness Expertise

Dr. Wagoner has testified approximately 20 times as an expert witness in cases before District Courts, Circuit courts, the Court of Federal Claims, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S.P.T.O. He has appeared in jury trials and bench trials and has appeared as an expert for plaintiffs and defendants. 

He has been qualified as an expert in Mechanical Engineering and Materials/Metallurgical Engineering. He has never failed to qualify as an expert.

In recent years, most of his appearances have been in cases of intellectual property, patent infringement and validity, trade secrets, and inter partes reviews.

See “Expert Witness Experience” on this page for more detail.

Consulting Expertise

Dr. Wagoner has consulted with national, international and multi-national companies on a variety of issues related to Mechanical Engineering and Materials/Metallurgical Engineering. 

Areas include material processing, automotive parts and manufacturing, sheet metal forming, finite element modeling, CAD/CAM software, percutaneous medical devices such as stents, steels, aluminum alloys, springback, plastic deformation, material properties, phases and microstructures, welding and welding processes.

See “Consulting Experience” on this page for more detail.

Executive Leadership Expertise

  • President of AIME (The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers), 2003-2004 
  • President of TMS (The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society), 1997-1998
  • President of the TMS Foundation, 1998-1999  
  • Co-organizer of the first and second Japan-America Frontiers of Engineering for the National Academy of Engineering 
  • Trustee of AIME, 1997-1999 
  • Trustee of the Orton Ceramic Foundation, 1992-1996 
  • Governor of Acta Materialia, 1999-2002
  • Director of the Ohio State Research Foundation, 1990-1994 

Recent committee leadership for the National Academy of Engineering includes chairing the Gordon Prize Committee, chairing the Materials Section and chairing the Materials Peer Committee, as well as being a member of the NAE-wide Committee on Membership.

Research Expertise

Dr. Wagoner's group performs a variety of research related to metal forming: experimental and analytical, applied and basic. Research specialties include:

  • Plasticity theory
  • Finite element analysis
  • Mechanical behavior of materials
  • Micromechanisms of deformation

He has presented over 100 international and invited papers on these research topics, and has advised 24 masters and 29 doctoral student theses. He has won numerous national and international awards for research in these areas both at General Motors and OSU (see below) and has published over 300 articles that have been cited over 12,000 times, with an h-index of 56.

Research Awards and Honors


Downloads

Biographical sketch (1 pg)

Resume (2 pgs)