Timothy Foecke (born 1963) is an American metallurgist, former research professor at the University of Maryland - College Park, and founder and former director of the NIST Center for Automotive Lightweighting at the

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

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NIST The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical s ...

Biography

Foecke was born in Missouri, moving at age two to Edina, Minnesota and at age twelve to a farm north of Howard Lake, Minnesota. He graduated from Howard Lake-Waverly High School in 1982. When he was a high school senior, and the chemistry teacher was ill for three months, he taught chemistry to the juniors. Foecke received a bachelor's degree in 1986 and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering in 1991, both from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. His thesis work, completed under Professor William W. Gerberich, involved the interaction of cracks and crack tip emitted dislocations on toughening in crystals and measured the effect of lattice flow stress on the critical stress intensity for dislocation emission from a Mode I crack in a series of single crystal alkali halide solid solutions. He was awarded a National Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship at NIST to work with Dr. Robb M. Thomson in 1991 to study

dislocation In materials science, a dislocation or Taylor's dislocation is a linear crystallographic defect or irregularity within a crystal structure that contains an abrupt change in the arrangement of atoms. The movement of dislocations allow atoms to sli ...

generation and motion in nanomaterials. He observed the generation and motion of Orowan dislocations from misfit interfacial sources in single crystal Cu/Ni nanolayered composites in an in situ TEM deformation experiment. Foecke is a second cousin to NFL placekicker Adam Vinatieri (their mothers were first cousins) and is a third cousin of

Evel Knievel Robert Craig Knievel (October 17, 1938November 30, 2007), known professionally as Evel Knievel (), was an American stunt performer and entertainer. Throughout his career, he attempted List of Evel Knievel career jumps, more than 75 ramp-to-ra ...

.Phillips, J.D
Genealogical Amusements
North Michigan University. Retrieved 9 January 2014.

Work

Beginning in 1996, Foecke has been involved in the forensic examination of the structure and mechanical properties of metals recovered from the wreck of the

RMS Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that Sinking of the Titanic, sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking Iceberg that struck the Titanic, an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York Ci ...

, and has been involved in expeditions in 1996, 1998, and 2004. He performed experiments on several hull fragments and definitively disproved the theory that the steel used to construct the hull of the Titanic was inferior and brittle. He was the originator of the "rivet theory" to explain the rapid sinking of the Titanic. His initial report on the hull steel and rivets was published in 1998. This study was greatly expanded in collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Hooper McCarty in her Ph.D. thesis work at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

and was published in 2008 in the book "What Really Sank the Titanic - New Forensic Discoveries" (Citadel Press) and has been published as a German translation "Warum sank die Titanic wirklich?: Neue forensische Erkenntnisse (Springer Vieweg) (2012)". Foecke was a member of the National Construction Safety Team that analyzed the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and was responsible for all failure analysis and fractography of steel components, forensic image analysis of images and video footage contributed by the public and media organizations to identify damage and failure mechanisms of the steel components impacted by the aircraft and ascertain the integrity of the fireproofing on the steel, and investigations looking into evidence of maximum temperatures reached by recovered building components. Foecke led a project at

that created a finite element model of the wreck of the USS Arizona, attempting to estimate the remaining lifespan before the collapse and to provide a mechanism to test remediation techniques before implementing them on the monument. Foecke is also a consultant on conservation efforts on the wrecks of the CSS Hunley and USS Monitor. Foecke has been involved in a project attempting to stabilize and conserve the Inconel components of the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...

first stage Rocketdyne F-1 engine recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. He has been involved in several television science productions as an interviewee and consultant, including Titanic - Anatomy of a Disaster (Discovery Channel), Titanic Live (Discovery Channel), Titanic - Answers from the Abyss (Discovery Channel), Collapse of the World Trade Center (Discovery Canada), Seconds from Disaster - Sinking of the RMS Titanic (National Geographic Channel), Living in a Material World (Discovery Science Channel), Return to Titanic (National Geographic Channel), Science of Superhuman Strength (Discovery Channel), and Humanless Earth (NOVA). Foecke's work has been covered in the media extensively, with front-page articles in ''The New York Times'' and ''The Washington Post'', as well as interviews with TV, radio and print media around the world. He was one of the first "mystery guests" on the NPR series ''Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me'', appearing on the 5th ever broadcast on January 31, 1998. Foecke helped the Science Museum of Maryland in Baltimore develop the exhibit "Science of the Titanic", which tours children's museums in the US and has delivered over 200 presentations to school groups from elementary to college on various forensic topics, including "What Sank the Titanic" and "Cool, Old, Famous Broken Stuff", attempting to interest kids in STEM field careers. Foecke is the founder and past director of the NIST Center for Automotive Lightweighting, the mission is helping the US auto industry get lighter, next-generation materials into vehicle bodies. A $4M, congressionally-funded project, current work involves complex, multipath, and high-rate testing of materials such as carbon fiber composites and advanced high-strength steels and using the data to generate constitutive models used in finite element design of car bodies and the needed manufacturing tools. Foecke was a consultant to the National Capital Planning Commission on materials selection and durability for the Eisenhower Memorial on Maryland Avenue in Washington, DC. From 2001-2012, Foecke was an adjunct professor of materials science and engineering at

in Baltimore, Maryland, and since 2010 has been an adjunct professor of materials science and engineering at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

- College Park, teaching courses in thermodynamics/kinetics of materials, structure/property relationships in materials and he developed a new course in engineering materials selection, which after one year as an elective was moved by the department to be a required core class. In 2017 he expanded the curriculum with a class on high-strength metallic materials and a University Honors seminar course on the root causes of historic engineering failures. Foecke retired from federal government service after 28 years in November 2019 and joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Maryland - College Park full-time as a lecturing professor until May 2022. Foecke has a Bacon Number of 2 (

Martin Sheen Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. His work spans over six decades of television and film, and his accolades include three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and ...

having been the narrator of the Discovery Channel documentary ''Titanic-Anatomy of a Disaster'', and co-starred in the movie ''JFK'' with

Kevin Bacon Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. Known for various roles, including leading man characters, Bacon has received numerous accolades such as a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Bacon made his featu ...

), and an Erdős number of 4 (via Robb Thomson to Peter Bergmann To Ernst G. Straus to Paul Erdős), giving him an Erdős–Bacon number of 6.

Patents

US 10,761,002 - "Shear Loader and Performing Pure Mode II or Mixed Mode I and Mode II Shear Loading", with Matthias Merzkirch and Edward Pompa (September 1, 2020).

Honors and awards

*Exxon Fellowship (1986–1991) *Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award (1990) *National Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellow (1991–1993) *The Captain Joseph Linnard Prize of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (1997) *Named "Hero of Public Service" by the Council for Excellence in Government and the Ford Foundation (1998) *United States Department of Commerce Gold Medal (for his part in the World Trade Center collapse investigation) (2005) *NIST - William P. Slichter Award (recognizing excellence in interactions with industry) (2011) *Excellence in Teaching Award (College Level) - Maryland Association of Science Teachers (2012) *Distinguished Team Award (shared) - US Department of Energy (2019) - For advanced mechanical testing of carbon fiber composites for automotive lightweighting

References

External links

Timothy Foecke
Director - NIST Center for Automotive Lightweighting (NCAL)
CSI: Titanic Biography

JHU Course Homepage
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Foecke, Tim 1963 births Living people University of Minnesota alumni American metallurgists Department of Commerce Gold Medal