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Prof. Srikanth Pilla named next Director of the University of Delaware, Center for Composite Materials
University of Delaware Center for Composite Materials is pleased to announce Srikanth Pilla, Ph.D., as the next Director beginning August 1, 2023.

Prof. Pilla follows Prof. John W. Gillespie, Jr., who has led the center for 30 years. Under Prof. Gillespie’s leadership, UD-CCM has become arguably the nation’s top center of its kind. He has been an outstanding mentor to countless faculty, students, and researchers.

Prof. Pilla is one of the world’s leading experts in advanced lightweighting and sustainable composites. His current research is focused on engineering advanced, multifunctional structural polymers and foams for various applications, including in the automotive, aerospace, defense, and specialty component industries.

Before joining UD-CCM, Prof. Pilla held the ExxonMobil Employees Endowed Chair at Clemson University Dept of Automotive Engineering and was the founding director of the Clemson Composite Center. He has also held positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, SC Johnson and Son Inc., and SuGanit Bio-renewables Inc.

Srikanth’s research is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Agriculture, NASA, and several automotive OEMs and suppliers. He is the associate editor of the SAE International Journal of Materials and Manufacturing series and editor of Polymer Science and Plastics Engineering at Wiley-Scrivener. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Renewable Materials. In addition to serving as the University of Delaware Center for Composite Materials Director, Prof. Pilla will hold a primary faculty appointment with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and joint appointments in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

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