Alejandro Strachan

Alejandro Strachan is a Professor of Materials Engineering at Purdue University and the Deputy Director of NNSA's Center for the Prediction of Reliability, Integrity and Survivability of Microsystems. Before joining Purdue University, he was a staff member in the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory and worked as a Postdoctoral Scholar and Scientist at Caltech. He received a Ph.D in Physics from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1999. Prof. Strachan's research focuses on the development of predictive atomistic and molecular simulation methodologies to describe materials from first principles, their application to problems of technological importance and quantification of associated uncertainties. Application areas of interest include: coupled electronic, thermal and mechanical processes in nano-electronics, MEMS and energy conversion devices; thermo-mechanical response and chemistry of polymer composites and molecular solids as well as active materials including shape memory and high-energy density materials.

• Guest Editor with Profs. Gerhard Klimeck and Mark Lundstrom of Special Issue in Computing in Science and Engineering on "Cyber-enabled simulations in nanoscale science and engineering" March/April 2010.
• Site Lead and Chair of the Steering Committee, NCN@Purdue Program, Network for Computational Nanotechnology, an NSF research and cyber-infrastructure center.
• Developed nanoHUB-U course "From Atoms to Materials: Predictive Theories and Simulations", 2013.

• Purdue University Faculty Scholar (2012-2017)
• Purdue University College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Award. Team Award: PRISM, 2009.
• The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society Early Career Faculty Fellow Award 2009.
• Schuhmann Best Undergraduate Teacher Award from the School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, 2007.
• Purdue University Teaching for Tomorrow award, 2007.

• "University Faculty Scholars - Active Appointments". Purdue University College of Engineering. Retrieved 2013-04-20. 
• "2009 Faculty Awards of Excellence Recipients". Purdue University College of Engineering. 2009-04-25. Retrieved 2013-04-20. 
• "TMS Professional Honors and Awards: Early Career Faculty Fellow Award". The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society. Retrieved 2013-04-20. 
• Purdue Marketing & Media, Purdue University. "Purdue University Teaching for Tomorrow Fellowship Award Recipients". Purdue University. Retrieved 2013-04-20. 

Books, Monographs, and Book Contributions

• Haskins, P. J., and M. D. Cook. "Molecular dynamics studies of thermal and shock initiation in energetic materials." AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol. 370. 1996.