Professional Activities:

Work Experience:

08/99-present Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
08/12-present Professor, Materials Science and Engineering Department
08/08-present Chair of Graduate Program, Materials Science and Engineering
08/10-present Director, Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing
03/02-present Associate Director, Center for Photonics Technology
08/04-present Director, NanoBio Materials Laboratory, Materials Science and Engineering Dept.
08/08-08/12 Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering Department
08/04-08/08 Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering Department
11/01-08/04 Research Assistant Professor, Elect. and Comp. Eng. Department
1/00 – 08/04 Affiliated Research Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering Dept.
08/99-11/01 Research Scientist, Elect. and Comp. Eng. Department
1995-1999 Technical Director, Porvair Advanced Materials, Hendersonville, NC
- Porous metals and ceramics development for molten metal filtration, ceramic matrix composites, catalytic applications, etc
1994-1995 General Manager, Materials Technologies of Virginia
- Low Expansion Ceramic Materials Research and Development
1991-1994 Graduate Project Assistant, Virginia Tech. Corrosion of structural materials for use in coal gasification systems and phase equilibria research sponsored by PETC
1989-1994 Glass Technologist, Corning, Inc. Greenville, Ohio (educational leave to pursue Ph.D. from 1991-1994)
- Responsible for glass for million lbs/day glass production facility
1987-1989 Research and Development Engineer, Owens Illinois, TV Products Division, Perrysburg, Ohio
- Developed several products for the microelectronics industry
1985-1987 Graduate Research Assistant, The Ohio State University.  Phosphor research sponsored by General Electric and phase equilibria research
1985-1985 Summer Intern, USBM, Avondale, Maryland.  Performed Research on nitride reclamation and ternary salt equilibrium
1984-1984 Summer Intern, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Wrote User’s Guide to Protocol: a Numerical Simulator for the Dissolution Reactions of Inorganic Solids in Nuclear Waste Glass


Professional Activities/Awards/Honors:
  • Faculty Fellow, College of Engineering, 2007-2010
  • VT Faculty Scholar of the week, November, 2006
  • IEEE Senior Member, 2006
  • Virginia Tech Outstanding Assistant Professor Award, 2005
  • R&D 100 Award October, 2004 (for a fiber optic sensor suite - one of the top 100 products developed in the world)
  • Academic Dean’s List for Teaching 2002-present
  • Outstanding Achievement Award: for multi-year key contributions to Virginia Tech’s Photonics Program, CPT, Virginia Tech 2004.
  • Invited Participant in U.S. DOE/NETL Stakeholder Workshop on Advanced Sensing in Power Generation, April 8-9, 2010
  • Invited Participant and Presenter to jointly sponsored workshop between the US NSF and the Chinese NSF on Optical Fiber Sensors in Wuhan China, July 8-10, 2009 – one of twelve invited experts from the United States.  Expenses were paid by the US NSF and the Chinese NSF.
  • Invited Participant and Presenter at Workshop “Advancing Technological Frontiers for Feasibility of Ageless Structures”, Strasbourg, France October 2-4, 2003, jointly sponsored by the US National Science Foundation and the European Science Foundation
  • Invited Participant and Presenter at Joint US-Japan International Workshop on Borehole Instrumentation and Near Source Seismology, March 13-16th, 2001 Tsukuba, Japan, sponsored by the US Geological Society (USGS) and the Japanese Geological Society

Editorial Board Member:

  • Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Nanotechnology and Energy
  • Editorial Board Member for the International Journal of Lean Six Sigma
  • Editorial Board Member for the International Journal Sensors (MDPI)
  • Editorial Board Member for the New Journal of Glass and Ceramics, NJGC
  • Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Surface Engineered Materials and Adv. Techn.
  • Editorial Board Member for the Journal Chemical Sensors
  • Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Photonics
  • Editorial Board Member (past) for the International Journal of Six Sigma (2003-2011)
Other Pertinent Activities
  • Six Sigma Training – by Rogers Consulting, Inc.
  • Cycle Time Reduction Training – by Saddle Island Institute
  • Apples and Oranges Training – by Celemi
  • Design of Experiments (DOE) – Taguchi Methods
  • Lessons in Leadership Series – Featuring Ken Blanchard, Steven Covey, Tom Peters, Herb Keller and Jack Welch
  • Lean Manufacturing Training – by MTC personnel

Gary R Pickrell

Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 
Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
Phone: 540 231-3504
E-mail: pickrell@vt.edu