Trevor Aguirre, an extreme environment materials researcher at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been selected as a 2025 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award winner by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, or SME, for his contributions to ceramic additive manufacturing.
Since 1980, the SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award has recognized manufacturing engineers, age 35 or younger, who have made exceptional contributions and accomplishments in the manufacturing industry. Aguirre was one of only 10 recipients of the award for 2025.
“It’s pretty easy to look at your own projects and think you’re having an impact,” Aguirre said. “But to be acknowledged by a neutral party who doesn’t know me personally and is judging me solely by my work, feels pretty spectacular.”
Aguirre joined ORNL as an intern in 2019 while he was still pursuing his doctorate in mechanical engineering at Colorado State University. After receiving his doctoral degree, he returned to ORNL in 2020 as an Alvin M. Weinberg Distinguished Staff Fellow in the Extreme Environments Materials Process group at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, or MDF.
“Manufacturing components for harsh environments is a difficult field,” said James Klett, leader of the Extreme Environment Materials Process group. “But Trevor has never been afraid to take on the challenge. He has set his career goal of becoming an expert in fabricating things that are difficult to make. We’re lucky to have him on our team.”
The primary focus of Aguirre’s research is developing additive manufacturing methods for ceramic products used in ultra-high temperature applications where unique geometries are required. Aguirre has developed processes to manufacture ceramic components such as heat exchangers, filtration devices and even bone replacements. One of Aguirre’s favorite projects was when he developed a novel method to affordably and reliably 3D print with silicon and then convert it to silicon nitride, a ceramic material used in environments that require high thermal and wear resistance.
At the MDF, Aguirre develops next-generation ultra-high temperature, harsh environment ceramics, composites and hybrid materials that can withstand higher temperatures while demonstrating increased strength and wear resistance compared to traditional materials. The advanced ceramics have applications in thermal management and energy generation technologies.
MDF, supported by DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, is a nationwide consortium of collaborators working with ORNL to innovate, inspire and catalyze the transformation of U.S. manufacturing.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the DOE Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. — Logan Korn
