Bio
Dr. Michael Kirka is a Senior Research Staff and the Group Leader of the Deposition Science and Technology Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Michael’s current research focuses on evaluating the suitability and limitations of high temperature materials for use in extreme environments for processing via additive manufacturing routes. Through developing an interdisciplinary team encompassing backgrounds of metallurgy, data science, modeling, and simulation, the processing science necessary to enable materials of ever-increasing operational capabilities (High gamma prime Ni-base superalloys and refractory metals) while overcoming many non-weldability materials challenges has been achieved. Michael received his B.S. in materials science 2007 from The University of Michigan and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from The Georgia Institute of Technology in mechanical engineering in 2010 and 2014 respectively.