Timothy Foecke (born 1963) is an American

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sci ...

, 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 physical sc ...

(

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 sc ...

Biography

Foecke was born in Missouri, moving at age two to

Edina, Minnesota Edina ( ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States and a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. The population was 53,494 at the 2020 census, making it the 18th most populous city in Minnesota. Edina began as a small farming and mil ...

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, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

. His thesis work, completed under Professor William W. Gerberich, involved the interaction of cracks and crack tip emitted

dislocations 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 s ...

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 s ...

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 Adam Matthew Vinatieri (born December 28, 1972) is an American former football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 24 seasons with the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts. Considered one of the greatest kick ...

(their mothers were first cousins) and is a third cousin of

Evel Knievel Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel (; October 17, 1938 – November 30, 2007) was an American stunt performer and entertainer. Over the course of his career, he attempted more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps. Knievel was inducted into the Moto ...

.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 passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

, 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 RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unit ...

. 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 Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

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 World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

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 USS ''Monitor'' was an ironclad warship built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War and completed in early 1862, the first such ship commissioned by the Navy. ''Monitor'' played a central role in the Battle of Hampton Roads on 9 Mar ...

. Foecke has been involved in a project attempting to stabilize and conserve the

Inconel Inconel is a registered trademark of Special Metals Corporation for a family of austenitic nickel-chromium-based superalloys. Inconel alloys are oxidation-corrosion-resistant materials well suited for service in extreme environments subjected to ...

components of the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, and ...

first stage

Rocketdyne F-1 The F-1, commonly known as Rocketdyne F1, was a rocket engine developed by Rocketdyne. This engine uses a gas-generator cycle developed in the United States in the late 1950s and was used in the Saturn V rocket in the 1960s and early 1970s. Five ...

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 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, MD, 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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the Flagship un ...

- 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 Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon or Bacon's Law is a parlor game where players challenge each other to arbitrarily choose an actor and then connect them to another actor via a film that both actors have appeared in together, repeating this process to t ...

of 2 (

Martin Sheen Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. He first became known for his roles in the films '' The Subject Was Roses'' (1968) and ''Badlands'' (1973), and later achieved wi ...

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. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller ''JFK'' (1991), the legal drama ''A Few Good Men'' (1992), the ...

), and an

Erdős number The Erdős number () describes the "collaborative distance" between mathematician Paul Erdős and another person, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers. The same principle has been applied in other fields where a particular individual ...

of 4 (via Robb Thomson to Peter Bergmann To Ernst G. Straus to

Paul Erdős Paul Erdős ( hu, Erdős Pál ; 26 March 1913 – 20 September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. pursued and proposed problems in ...

), 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)

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