Lab Partnering Service Discovery

Professor of Chemistry, received his B.S. in 1997 from Pennsylvania State University, where he worked in the group of Prof. Ayusman Sen on palladium-catalyzed co- and terpolymerizations. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003 under the guidance of Prof. T. Don Tilley, primarily focused on the development of new catalytic C–H bond functionalizations. Following postdoctoral work at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich) with Antonio Togni investigating catalytic asymmetric hydroamination and hydrophosphination, Aaron joined the chemistry faculty at Iowa State University in 2005. He was promoted to associate professor in 2011, and to professor in 2016.

Dr. Mark Bryden is the founding director of the Simulation, Modeling and Decision Science program at Ames Laboratory and is a professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University. Dr. Bryden’s research is focused on the federation of information from disparate sources (e.g., models, data, and other information elements) to create detailed models of engineered, human, and natural systems that enable engineering decision making for these complex systems. Dr. Bryden has published more than 180 peer-reviewed articles and co-authored the textbook Combustion Engineering. He has founded two successful startups based on his research work, and he has founded the nonprofit ETHOS, a community of 150+ researchers focused on meeting the needs for clean village energy in the developing world. He has received three patents, three R&D 100 awards, two Regional Excellence in Technology Transfer awards, and a National Excellence in Technology Transfer award. In 2013 he and his coauthors received the ASME Melville Medal. His professional experience includes three years as an engineer and 11 years as a manager at Westinghouse Electric in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In addition, for more than 15 years Professor Bryden has worked on energy systems for the poor in a number of developing countries. 

CMI Researcher Thomas Lograsso began serving as CMI interim director in November 2019. He had led the CMI Focus Area 2, Developing Substitutes since 2014. Previously he led Focus Area 4, Crosscutting Research while serving as the interim director of The Ames Laboratory. Also at Ames Lab, Tom leads a BES Synthesis & Processing effort on Novel Materials Preparation and Processing Methodology, whose goal is to develop synthesis protocols for new materials including quasicrystals, ferromagnetic shape memory alloys, and those that may contain volatile reactive or toxic components especially in single crystalline form. Often his pioneering synthesis efforts result in the first single crystals of these novel materials to be grown and studied for intrinsic behavior. 

Tom is co-inventor of a rare-earth free substitute for the magnetostrictive alloy Terfenol-D (contains the critical elements Tb and Dy) used in high precision machining operations for small engine components and as a ultrasonic driver in petroleum exploration. This iron-based substitute is currently being evaluated for commercialization in energy harvesting applications.

Dr. Lograsso received his education in metallurgical engineering at Michigan Technological University, earning his Ph.D. in 1986. He did postdoctoral training working on the Rensselaer team, developing the Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment (IDGE) that flew on the Space Shuttle in the late 1990s. The IDGE tested the fundamental solidification physics of the pattern formation and kinetics of crystal growth in isothermal undercooled melts in growth regimes where gravity driven convection overwhelmed the growth in terrestrial conditions.