2022 HENAAC Awards
Education: Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Master’s, Mechanical Engineering, Boise State University; Bachelor’s, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University.
It is difficult to overstate the impact Dr. Frank W. DelRio is having on the development of materials and mechanical processes for advanced nanotechnology applications. In his current role as a principal member of the technical staff in the Materials, Mechanics, and Tribology Department at Sandia National Laboratory, he conducts research advancing our understanding of nano-scale materials and the processes for their generation, measurement, and maintenance.
Dr. DelRio serves a dual role as an affiliate scientist at the Department of Energy’s Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, where he brings together university faculty, students, national laboratory scientists, and industrial researchers to explore new nanoscale materials, architectures and microsystems. In pursuit of this, he oversees operations in the Nanomechanics Laboratory which focuses on small-scale measurements using cutting edge instruments and methods like atomic force microscopy and nanoindentation.
His work developing innovative measurements and standards related to the deformation, adhesion, fracture, and fatigue of nano-scale material impacts everything from smart phones to internet-of-things devices found in homes and businesses across the planet.
The son of a Cuban immigrant father and raised in Florida, Dr. DelRio has represented the United States as a National Academies Frontiers Fellow in Brazil and Saudi Arabia, as an Embassy Science Fellow in the Czech Republic, and as a Humboldt Research Fellow in Germany. His technical accomplishments have culminated in the publication of over 100 peer-reviewed scholarly articles in prestigious journals like Science, Nature Materials, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In his short time as a Sandia staff member, he has collaborated on eight journal articles currently in review and has published nearly 20 more.
Dr. DelRio’s work has been recognized by world-renowned scientists and engineers, resulting in repeated requests for academic and industrial collaborations. His research has generated new knowledge and improved the way diverse research and development sectors use mechanical measurements and analyses to advance disparate technologies.