Dr. Owen Hildreth is an Assistant Professor  in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Colorado School of Mines.  He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego in 2002 and worked for five years as a mechanical engineer designing consumer products.  He returned to school in 2007 and, in 2012, received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology under the supervision of Prof. C. P. Wong.  His Ph.D. research identified the mechanism for catalyst motion in metal assisted chemical etching (MacEtch) for applications in 3D nanofabrication.  Prior to his appointment at ASU, he was a National Research Council (NRC) postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Technology (NIST) where he continued his study of MacEtch and expanded into additive manufacturing using reactive inks.  His current research areas focus on additive manufacturing from the nanometer to centimeter scales, including Coulombic repulsion in ultra-nearfield electrohydrodynamic printing; mass transport, reaction kinetics, and interface design in reactive inks for stretchable electronics, photovoltaics, and microfluidic devcies; sensitization kinetics, microstructure evolution, dilution, and corrosion of metals fabricated using Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) and Directed Energy Deposition (DED) technologies.

Contact: ohildreth[at]mines.edu      Office: CoorsTek 214

Steven DiGregorio joined the group in 2019 to pursue a Ph.D. after graduating from New Mexico Institute of Science and Technology with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He is interested in microelectronics manufacturing, printed electronics, and transparent conducting electrodes. His research focuses on optimizing reactive silver ink composition and printing conditions for photovoltaic metallization.

Pickles has taken over Fluffy’s job as Official Lab Safety Dog.  He is still learning the ropes, but he is doing a good job keeping us all in line.  Pickles enjoys hiding bones, eating bones, and inspecting bones for safety issues.

Subbarao Raikar graduated with his B.E. in Aerospace Engineering from Jain University.  He joined our group at Arizona State University as a volunteer in Fall 2017 and finished his Materials Science in Mechanical Engineering in 2018. He continued as a Ph.D. student when we moved to Colorado School of Mines in Spring 2018. Subbarao developed an entirely new, sulfur-based self-terminating etching process for Titanium alloys.  His Ph.D. focused on the corrosion response of metals in sulfur and iodine-rich environments. He successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation (Development of Sulfur-Based Self-Terminating Process for Support Removal and Surface Finishing of Additively Manufactured Ti-6Al-4V) on August 17, 2022 and graduated with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines.

Avinash Mamidanna joined our group in Fall 2014 to pursue his Masters degree. He continued on as a PhD from Summer 2015 and has been a part of the group ever since. He is from Chennai, India and he got his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Anna University, Madras. He is interested in understanding the kinetics of reactive ink systems and their applications as front contacts for low temperature photovoltaics.  He successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation (Morphology Prediction of Reactive Silver Ink Systems) and graduated with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines in 2019. He now works for Applied Materials in the Bay Area.

Chris Lefky joined our group in Fall 2014.  He graduated with his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Creighton University.  His thesis focuses on understanding the microstructure and corrosion/dissolution of dissolvable metal supports for PBF and DED printing.  He successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation (Corrosion and Sensitized Microstructure Evolution of 3D Printed Stainless Steel 316 and Inconel 718 Dissolvable Supports) in 2018 and graduated with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University.  He now works with additively manufactured materials in the Phoenix area.

Dr. Carolina González Gaitán received her B.S in Chemical Engineering from National University of Colombia, Bogotá in 2011. She moved to Spain to pursue her Masters degree at the University of Alicante where she continued on her studies and received her Ph.D. in Materials Science in 2016. Her Ph.D. research was focus on the functionalization of nanostructured carbon materials for their application in electrocatalysis and biosensors. She joined our group in December 2017 to work on developing and optimizing new reactive inks for photovoltaic applications.  This includes adjusting reactive ink reduction mechanisms, measuring kinetic parameters, and working with other group members to integrate these new inks into their processes.  She was instrumental in developing new reactive silver inks for photovoltaic applications. This included adjusting reactive ink reduction mechanisms, measuring kinetic parameters, and working with other group members to integrate these new inks into their processes.  She has since moved on into industry, but her impact on our work continues to this day.  We still call her silver reactive ink recipe the “Gaitan Ink” and it is still our top performer.

Fluffy is the Official Lab Dog.  Often joining Dr. Hildreth at nights and on weekends, he makes sure the lab is kept neat and tidy.  However, he is not a big fan of being in the lab because, as he says, “Labs belong in the lab.  I’m a Great Dane.  I should be in the dane, not the lab.”  Luckily, he accepts his role as Official Lab Dog with stoic optimism as long has he gets the occasional treat.

Fluffy passed away in Summer of 2021.  We miss him and we have continue to honor his strong commitment to safety.