Professor Jon Brown

 Assistant Professor of Practice

Education

• B.S. in Applied Mathematics, New Mexico Tech
• M.S. in Applied Mathematics, New Mexico Tech
• Ph.D. in Materials Engineering, New Mexico Tech

The focus of my research at New Mexico Tech was the use of statistical mechanics and molecular dynamics simulations to study polymer glasses.

Area of interest

• General materials science and engineering
• Polymeric materials
• Computational/modeling of materials

Research background

After my Ph.D., I moved to Ohio in 2012 for a post-doctoral research position in the Chemical Engineering Department (polymer science tends to be pretty multidisciplinary). Since 2015, I have split my time between computational polymer research and teaching in the engineering education department (section 118X) then in the MSE department. In 2020, I joined MSE full time.

Approach to diversity and inclusion

I am committed to fostering a classroom environment in which students from diverse backgrounds feel a sense of belonging and can effectively grow and learn together. This improves the learning environment for all students. I believe that we need to encourage contributions from everyone to ensure we have enough engineers to meet society’s grand challenges. This will be especially crucial in areas such as energy efficiency and mitigating the effects of climate change, for which new and bold approaches are needed.

You might not know

While teaching in engineering education, I was part of a collaboration to improve teaching of visuospatial skills by using VR headsets in the classroom.