Darren Pagan earned a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University in 2010 and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Cornell University in 2016. His dissertation research focused on developing crystal kinematic and scattering models for quantifying heterogeneous plastic deformation in single crystals during thermo-mechanical loading from in-situ X-ray data. As a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Darren developed new methods for integrating diffraction data with crystal plasticity finite element modeling and used X-ray techniques to characterize granular material deformation in-situ under quasi-static and dynamic loading conditions.
Prior to joining Penn State, Darren Pagan was a staff scientist overseeing the structural materials and mechanics program at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS). At CHESS, he oversaw the design, construction, and commissioning of the Structural Materials Beamline (SMB) and the Forming and Shaping Technology Beamline (FAST). Darren joined the faculty of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State in 2020.
This faculty member is associated with the Penn State Intercollege Graduate Degree Program (IGDP) in Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) where a multitude of perspectives and cross-disciplinary collaboration within research is highly valued. Graduate students in the IGDP in MatSE may work with faculty members from across Penn State.
Our research group focuses on understanding the microstructure and processing origins of complex deformation and failure process across material classes, particularly metallic alloys and ceramics. The goal of this research is to extract quantitative measures of microstructure evolution in situ and in operando to develop, calibrate, and validate computational models, in addition to accelerating the design of superior materials. To make this possible, we develop novel characterization methods (primarily X-ray-based) supported by integrated thermomechanical and scattering modeling, along with machine learning.
Current research projects include:
- In situ characterization of defect structure evolution during dwell fatigue in Ti alloys
- Combining 3D in situ strain measurements and finite element modeling to characterize stress localization in piezoelectric ceramics
- Multi-modal characterization of slip transfer across grain boundaries in FCC and BCC alloys
- Developing a fractional-calculus crystal plasticity framework informed by 3D microstructure measurements
- Multiscale modeling and simulation of the origins of ductile fracture in polycrystalline FCC alloys
- Machine-learning informed data processing of in situ additive manufacturing data
- Al-Mamun, N.S., Rasel, M.A.J., Lim, R.E., Sheyfer, D., Liu, W., and Haque, A., Pagan, D.C., “Low temperature recovery of OFF-state stress induced degradation of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors” Applied Physics Letter. Volume 124. 013507 (2024)
- Pagan, D.C., Kissel, L.A., Whitaker, M., “An In Situ Study of the Role of Pressure on Fe Recrystallization and Grain Growth During Thermomechanical Processing” Metallurgical and Materials Transactions: A (2023)
- Lim, R.E., Muhkerjee, T., Chuang, C., Phan, T.Q., DebRoy, T., Pagan, D.C., “Combining synchrotron X-ray diffraction, mechanistic modeling and machine learning for in situ subsurface temperature quantification during laser melting” Journal of Applied Crystallography. Volume 56 (2023)
- Pagan, D.C., Peterson, K.M., Shade, P.A., Pilchak, A.L., Dye, D., “Using the Ti–Al System to Understand Plasticity and Its Connection to Fracture and Fatigue in α Ti Alloys” Metallurgical and Materials Transactions: A (2023)
- Pagan, D.C., Pash, C.R., Benson, A.R., Kasemer, M.P., “Graph neural network modeling of grain-scale anisotropic elastic behavior using simulated and measured microscale data” npj Computational Materials 8.259 (2022)
- Pagan, D.C., Nygren, K.E., Miller, M.P., “Analysis of a three-dimensional slip field in a hexagonal Ti alloy from in-situ high-energy X-ray diffraction microscopy data” Acta Materialia. Volume 221. 117372 (2021)
- Pagan, D.C., Schmidt, G.H. ‡, Borum, A.D., Long, T.J., Beaudoin, A.J., “Informing Mechanical Model Development using Lower-Dimensional Descriptions of Microstructural Evolution” Integrating Materials and Manufacturing Innovation. Volume 9. 459–471 (2020)
- Pagan, D.C., Jones, K.J., Bernier, J.V., Phan, T.Q., “A Finite Energy Bandwidth-Based Diffraction Simulation Framework for Thermal Processing Applications” JOM. Volume 72 (12). 4539–4550 (2020)
- Nygren, K.E., Pagan, D.C., Bernier, J.V., Miller M.P., “An algorithm for resolving intragranular orientation fields using coupled far-field and near-field high energy X-ray diffraction microscopy” Materials Characterization. Volume 165. 110366 (2020)
- Pagan, D.C., Phan, T.Q., Weaver, J.S., Benson, A.R., Beaudoin, A.J., “Unsupervised Learning of Dislocation Motion” Acta Materialia. Volume 181. 510-518 (2019)
- 2024 TMS-AIME 2024 AIME Robert Lansing Hardy Award
- 2024 TMS-AIME Champion H. Mathewson Award
- 2020 AFOSR Young Investigator Award