Heather Liddell

Heather Liddell is the Principal Investigator of the Liddell Research Group. She is an Assistant Professor at Purdue University, with a joint faculty appointment in Mechanical Engineering and Environmental & Ecological Engineering; she also holds a faculty affiliate position with Purdue’s Institute for a Sustainable Future. Her two main areas of research interest are: (1) failure analysis and adhesion in coatings and multi-material systems and (2) manufacturing sustainability, including environmental life cycle assessment.

Prior to joining Purdue in August 2023, Prof. Liddell served as a U.S. Department of Energy contractor, where she worked closely with DOE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office to develop strategies for resource-efficient and decarbonized manufacturing in the United States. Liddell holds BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering, and a PhD in materials science, all from the University of Rochester. She completed her postdoctoral training at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

Outside of work, Prof. Liddell enjoys spending time with her husband James and their three daughters. Her hobbies include travel, watercolor painting, and genealogy. Speaking of genealogy: lately she’s gotten into academic genealogy too! You can find the Liddell tree here. Our group members can proudly trace their roots back to academic ancestors including Bunsen, Ampere, Poisson, Fourier, Sturm, Liouville, Laplace, Lagrange, Bessel, Gauss, and Dirichlet!

Education:

PhD, Materials Science, University of Rochester (2013)

MS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Rochester (2010)

BS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Rochester (2008)