Dr. Edward J. Garboczi is a NIST Fellow in the Inorganic Materials Group of the Materials and Structural Systems Division (MSSD) of the Engineering Laboratory (EL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Dr. Garboczi joined the Inorganic Building Materials Group in October 1988, was the Group Leader from 1999 to 2009, and was promoted to Fellow in April 2009.
Dr. Garboczi's main research has been on the computational materials science of construction materials. This involves exploring relationships between microstructure and transport properties in cement-based materials using realistic computer-based microstructural models and exact property calculation algorithms. Electrical, diffusion, and elastic properties, as well as fluid permeability, shrinkage, and A.C. electrical properties have been studied and found to be in quantitative agreement with experimental results. He has also heavily used percolation and composite theory to understand the pore-space-dependent properties of cement-based materials. Dr. Garboczi has extensively worked in applying finite element techniques to 3-D microstructure models of ceramics, foams, and cement-based materials to accurately compute their linear elastic properties. More recently, he has used a novel combination of X-ray microcomputed tomography and spherical harmonic analysis to build quantitative mathematical models of random-shaped particles of cement, sand, gravel, fly ash, and slag, with applications by himself and others to simulated lunar soil, chemical explosives, and tumors. Much of his research is being built into the Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory, a novel software package being developed with the direct collaboration of industry and government that will be used to optimize concrete using the power of the computational materials science of concrete.
Prior to coming to NIST, Dr. Garboczi was a research physicist at Armstrong World Industries, Inc. Research and Development Division, where he worked on the transport and mechanical properties of random porous building materials.
Dr. Garboczi is a member of the American Physical Society, the American Ceramic Society, the American Concrete Institute, and RILEM. He received the Robert L' Hermite Medal from RILEM in 1992, the 1992 BFRL Communicator Award, and a Silver Medal from the Department of Commerce in 2009. He is a Fellow of both the American Ceramic Society and the American Concrete Institute and is on the editorial board of Cement and Concrete Research.
Materials and Structural Systems Division
Inorganic Materials Group
Michigan State University, Ph.D., Physics, 1985
Michigan State University, M.S., Physics, 1983
Michigan State University, B.S., Physics, 1980