New faculty spotlight: Calvin Stewart
Eleven new faculty members start their careers in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the 2022-2023 academic year. One of these new faculty is Calvin Stewart, who will be an Associate Professor and the Innovation Scholar in the College of Engineering beginning autumn semester 2022.
Stewart was a self-proclaimed “military brat” who moved frequently, but mostly grew up in Orlando, Florida. From an early age, he loved airplanes and used to study diagrams of planes.
“My mom recognized my interests and spurred them on” he said. “She got me involved in STEM related K-12 programs such as Chuck Yeager’s Young Eagles program, where I got to fly my first plane, ASCE Engineering for a Day program, where I saw my first mechanical test, and the Black Male College Explorers Program, where I lived on a college campus for a summer in middle school.”
Stewart attended the University of Central Florida where he received his B.S, M.S, and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. After college, he worked in a faculty position at The University of Texas at El Paso for 9 years where he earned tenure and held various leadership roles.
Stewart came to Ohio State for the opportunity to join a larger community of scientists and researchers, the resources available to advance his research, and the opportunity to work with a new cadre of talented students.
“It is my goal to develop partnerships within and without the University to effect positive change in society through research innovation, economic development, and technology transfer,” he said.
His research focus is Materials at Extremes which is the study of the mechanics of materials under extreme mechanical, thermal, and chemical conditions. Stewart pursues this area because it allows him to invent new materials, experiments, equations, and tools for understanding the behavior of materials.
“My research sits at the extreme limits of materials and design,” he said. “As we push for greater performance, efficiency, and power, materials begin to breakdown. We need to invent new materials, experiments, and models to understanding of mechanical behavior at extremes.”
His goals are to leverage advanced manufacturing to manufacturing new materials with exotic compositions and unique microstructures, design extreme tests with relevant temperatures, pressure, and environments, and develop theoretical models which capture the key phenomena of materials at extremes.
Stewart expressed how excited he was to be here.
“It means a lot to join this community,” he said. “The opportunity to join one of the largest and most well-equipped research university in the world motivates me to dream BIG at Ohio State. To pursue research questions and funding opportunities that were out of my reach before and that have a boarder impact to society.”
