Nanocomposites: Shape does matter!
	Thomas E. Twardowski Associate Professor Widener and Villanova Universities

Thomas Twardowski (BS’86, MS’88, PhD’92) was born in Chicago, Illinois. He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois, and M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science from University of Illinois under Professor Phillip Geil, with additional support at Risø Danish National Laboratories. Dr. Twardowski worked in the adhesives and biomaterials industries prior to returning to academics in 1997, where he began work with a novel direct-deposition technique for producing nanocomposite coatings with high fractions of ceramic loading, thermal spray.

Dr. Twardowski is currently an Associate Professor with teaching contracts at Widener and Villanova Universities, in addition to his active research program. His current research interests include the nature of reinforcement and particle interactions with polymer matrices as a function of size in nanocomposites. He is the author of an upcoming textbook: An Introduction to Nanocomposites, Properties Processing and Characterization (DesTech Publishing). He has publications on composites and nanocomposites in journals ranging from Journal of Applied Polymer Science to Journal of Thermal Spray Technology, spanning a 15+ year career in composites processing.

Chairing the special symposium on Composites.

Teaching the course on Introduction to Nanocomposites: Processing, Properties and Characterization in the Nano Industrial Impact Workshop.