David Dillard named Adhesive and Sealant Science Professor
David Dillard of Blacksburg, professor of engineering science and mechanics in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been named the Adhesive and Sealant Science Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors during the board’s quarterly meeting August 28.
The Adhesive and Sealant Science Endowed Professorship was established in 1989 as a succession of three-year renewable agreements between the Adhesives and Sealant Council and the Virginia Tech Foundation to recognize excellence in engineering research.
A member of the Virginia Tech faculty for 21 years, Dillard is internationally known for his work in adhesives and sealants. He has specialized in studies dealing with fracture mechanics, viscoelasticity, fatigue, environmental degradation, durability predictions, and test method development. Although his work spans a variety of polymeric material systems, his particular emphasis for many years has been on adhesives. Recent research efforts include durability of fuel cell materials and behavior of adhesives under impact conditions.
Dillard is the Robert L. Patrick Fellow of the Adhesion Society, the premiere international organization in this field. In 2004 he was elected to a six-year term, through which he will serve successively as vice president, president and immediate past president of the Adhesion Society. He also serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Adhesion.
In 2005 he received the Best Paper Award for the Advanced Composite Materials and Systems Track of the Society for Experimental Mechanics. He also received the 1995 and 1991 George G. Marra Award of Excellence from the Society of Wood Science and Technology, the 1995 Best Presentation Award from ASTM D-30, and the 1999 and 2002 GenCorp Signature University Award.
Dillard served as director of Virginia Tech’s Center for Adhesive and Sealant Science from 1999 to 2004 and as founder and interim director of the university’s Macromolecules and Interfaces Institute in 2004. He has held visiting positions at National Taiwan University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the University of Missouri-Rolla and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.
The College of Engineering at Virginia Tech is internationally recognized for its excellence in 14 engineering disciplines and computer science. The college's 5,500 undergraduates benefit from an innovative curriculum that provides a "hands-on, minds-on" approach to engineering education, complementing classroom instruction with two unique design-and-build facilities and a strong Cooperative Education Program. With more than 50 research centers and numerous laboratories, the college offers its 1,800 graduate students opportunities in advanced fields of study such as biomedical engineering, state-of-the-art microelectronics, and nanotechnology. Virginia Tech, the most comprehensive university in Virginia, is dedicated to quality, innovation, and results to the commonwealth, the nation, and the world.
Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech is the most comprehensive university in the Commonwealth of Virginia and is among the top research universities in the nation. Today, Virginia Tech’s eight colleges are dedicated to quality, innovation, and results through teaching, research, and outreach activities. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.
