Rate My Professor Chad Duty

Chad Duty is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (2001) and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech (1997). With over 20 years in advanced manufacturing, Duty's career spans academia, national laboratories, and industry. He joined UTK as joint faculty in 2013, became Associate Professor in 2015, and full Professor in August 2021. He maintains a joint appointment with Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. Previously at ORNL (2004-2015), he served as Group Leader of the Deposition Science & Technology Group (2013-2015), Senior Research Scientist at the MDF (2011-2015), Solar Program Manager (2009-2011), and Research Scientist in the Materials Science & Technology Division (2004-2011). Earlier roles include Director of Technology at the Tennessee Solar Institute (2010-2012) and Senior Aeronautical Engineer on the C-5 Galaxy Modernization Program at Lockheed Martin (2002-2004). Since April 2023, he has been CEO of IACMI – The Composites Institute.

Duty's research focuses on additive manufacturing of polymer and composite structures, including anisotropic mechanical behavior, new material development, melt flow characterization, and process-structure-property optimization. He co-developed the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) system for multi-meter scales and deposition rates over 100 lbs/h, and contributed to the world's first 3D printed car, Strati. His earlier work addressed roll-to-roll manufacturing, solar energy, pulse thermal processing, and nanoparticle production. Duty has over 170 publications and more than a dozen patents. Key publications include "Highly oriented carbon fiber–polymer composites via additive manufacturing" (Composites Science and Technology, 2014), "The importance of carbon fiber to polymer additive manufacturing" (Journal of Materials Research, 2014), "Structure and mechanical behavior of Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) materials" (Rapid Prototyping Journal, 2017), and "What makes a material printable? A viscoelastic model for extrusion-based 3D printing of polymers" (Journal of Manufacturing Processes, 2018). Major awards include R&D 100 Awards (2009, 2011), ORNL Director’s Award for BAAM (2014), National FLC Award for Pulse Thermal Processing (2013), Innovation Award at RAPID 2014, MABE Outstanding Faculty Initiative and Leadership Award (2018), Pi Tau Sigma Excellence in Teaching Award (2018), and Eugene P. Wigner Fellowship (2004).