Research Interests:

• Engineering Technologist

Education:

• A.A., Mechanical Engineering Technology, State Technical Institute at Knoxville (Pellissippi State Technical Community College), 1984. Studies included: Technical drawing, Industrial safety, Advanced shop practices, Instrumentation, Machine elements, Rotating machinery, Strengths of materials, Thermodynamics.

Research Experience:

• Engineering Technologist, ORNL Ceramic Surface Systems:
  Duties Include: Research into materials for gas turbines, diesel engine components, and fuel cells for electric vehicles. Development of methods for fabricating ceramics, ceramic and carbon composites and protective solid coatings from gas precursor species. Development and Production of Powder Metallurgy Ammunition. Design operation and maintenance of reaction chambers, heating units, and gas handling equipment including mechanical design of components and written procedures for use. Mechanical testing of finished product. Cataloging and archiving of test materials. Production of test data in reports, tables, view graphs. Purchase of lab supplies, equipment, and chemicals. RCRA satellite accumulation area custodian. Safety squad member trained in CPR. HTML Markup of these pages.
• Senior Engineering Assistant, ORNL Fracture Mechanics Group:
  Duties Include: Mechanical testing of materials under varying environmental conditions including irradiation, special atmospheres, vacuum, and temperatures ranging from 196 to 1100 °C. Design of test matrices and sampling plans. Development of specimens, fixtures, and test components. Generation of data for reports. Archiving of test specimens, materials, and data.

Honors and Awards:

• President's Honor List: Fall. 1981
• Dean's list: Spring 1984 and Winter 1982
• NICET Certification, Part A: June, 1984

Professional Societies:

• East Tennessee Computer Society (ETCS), Interim Editor PC Register July-October 1999

Publications:

• Formatted two html books for the NASA History Office. Special thanks to Steven Garber, NASA History Web Curator, for providing me with the materials. The books may be viewed at:
  • Space Handbook: Astronautics and its Applications , (Washington, D.C.: 86th Congress, 1st Session, House Document No. 86, 1959)
  • Orders of Magnitude: A History of the NACA and NASA, 1915-1990, (Washington, D.C.: NASA SP-4406,1989)
• Besmann, T.M. and Henry, J.J., Jr., "Nanophase Fiber Coatings by Electrophoretic Deposition for Ceramic Matrix Composites," MRS Fall '99, Boston, MA USA, Materials Research Society, 11/29/1999-12/03/1999.
• Besmann, T.M., Klett, J.W., Henry, J.J., Jr., and Lara-Curzio, E., "Carbon/Carbon Composite Bipolar Plate for PEM Fuel Cells," J. Electrochem. Soc., vol.147, 2000 pp.4083-4086 .
• Besmann, T.M., Henry, J.J., Jr. and Lowden, R.A. "Development of Short Fiber, SiC-Based Composites," 102nd Annual Meeting & Exposition of the American Ceramic Society St. Louis, MO USA, American Ceramic Society, 04/30-05/03/2000.
• Besmann, T.M., Klett, J.W., and Henry, J.J. Jr., and Lara-Curzio, E., "Carbon Composite Bipolar Plate for PEMFC," 200 Future Car Congress, Warren, PA USA, USCAR, 06/3-5/2001.

Other:

• Additional Training:
  • ASM Metallurgy for the Non-Metallurgist
  • AVS Vacuum Systems Short Course
  • Radiation Worker II
  • Red Cross First Aid and CPR (Adult)
• Software Proficiency:
  • Microsoft Office 97 and 2000
  • Corel WordPerfect Office 2000
  • Netscape Communicator 4.7
  • PaintShop Pro 5.3
  • Mastercam Techno CNC
  • Autodesk Autosketch 6.0
  • MetaCreations RayDream Studio
  • Eudora Pro 4.3.2
  • Caere Omnipage Pro 9.0
  • Adobe Acrobat 4.0
  • Adobe Pagemaker 5.0
  • Materials Data JADE 5.0.13
  • Princeton Gamma Tech Excalibur
  • Arrow Tech Prodas 2000
    

Group Members

Surface Processing and Mechanics Group