Prof. Pollock, Chair of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at University of California, Santa Barbara visited CWRU as part of the annual Van Horn Lecture Series and also visited with the JJL group. She toured the AMMRC facility and discussed various ongoing projects with the JJL group. Each of the JJL group students presented their work and received excellent feedback.

Tresa Pollock is the Alcoa Professor and Chair of the Department of Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She graduated with a B.S. from Purdue University in 1984, and a Ph.D.  from MIT in 1989. Dr. Pollock was employed at General Electric Aircraft Engines from 1989 to 1991, where she conducted research and development on high temperature alloys for aircraft turbine engines. She was a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University from 1991 - 1999 and the University of Michigan from 2000 - 2010. Her current research focuses on the processing and properties of structural materials and coatings and on the use of ultrafast lasers for microfabrication and materials diagnostics.