Jeff Baur is a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering. Baur has worked for the Air Force for 26 years as division technical director, branch technical advisor, research leader, program manager, and in-house researcher. In the past few years, he has been the advocate, architect, principal investigator, and manager for programs in morphing missiles, additive printed air vehicles, and composite manufacturing worth more than $80M dollars. Scientifically, Baur remains personally active in the development of multifunctional composites including materials to enable shape changing air vehicles, multiscale laser-composite interactions, nano-tailoring of resin-fiber interfaces, microvascular composites with reconfigurable liquid metal antenna, and integrated bio- inspired artificial hair air flow sensors. His record of publication includes over 90 refereed papers, one book, three book chapters, and five patents. He has taught classes on polymers, physics, and chemistry at M.I.T., the University of Dayton, and the University of Cincinnati, and has served on more than 10 Ph.D. thesis committees. His current interests are in additive processing of complex polymer composites, materials for morphing aerostructures, and structurally embedded sensing and adaptive protection. He has served as the government lead for structures air-worthiness and manufacturing of the XQ-58A (which will soon be on display in the U.S. Air Force Museum) and led the program that is developing potentially new, long endurance X-plane. Most of all, Baur is proud to have worked with his talented, selfless, and dedicated colleagues within AFRL and to have made a small contribution to our nation’s future security. He especially enjoined forming international partnerships with defense allies in India, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – as well as living in the U.K. for five months!

Education

• B.A., physics and chemistry, Illinois Wesleyan University, 1990
• B.S., materials  science and engineering, University of Cincinnati, 1992
• Ph.D., materials science and engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997

• 2021: Exemplary Civilian Service Award
• 2015: AFMC’s Top McLucas Candidate for Basic Research 
• 2015: Affiliated Societies Outstanding Researcher Award 
• 2012: Air Force Meritorious Service Award 
• 2011: Air Force Civilian Achievement Award 
• 2004: M.I.T. Infinte Miles Award 
• 1999: Materials and Manufacturing Directorate Cleary Scientific Achievement Award 

Research areas:

• Aerospace Materials

• Aerospace Structures

• Composite Materials