Randall Erb
Professor,
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Affiliated Faculty,
Chemical Engineering
Contact
- r.erb@northeastern.edu
- 334 Snell Engineering Center
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Office
- 306 DA
- 617.373.4649
Lab
- 227 EC
- 617.373.6582
Research Focus
Structure/property relationships in composites and ceramics, magnetic manipulation, colloidal physics
Education
- PhD, Duke University, 2009
Honors & Awards
- 2017 Outstanding Translational Research Award
Research Overview
Structure/property relationships in composites and ceramics, magnetic manipulation, colloidal physics
Directed Assembly of Particles & Suspensions (DAPS)
Our research focuses on multiscale synthesis and characterization of functional composite materials to impact diverse fields from structural composites to energy storage to biomedical implants. To us, multiscale synthesis involves exploiting chemical physics to assemble material at the nanoscale, exploiting colloidal physics to assemble material at the microscale, and exploiting manufacturing technology to assemble material at the macroscale.
Selected Research Projects
- A Study on Burning Iron Particles as Carbon-Free Circular Fuels with co-Generation of Value-Added Nanomaterials
- – co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Battery Electrode Technologies
- – Principal Investigator, Rogers Corporation
- Composite and Ceramic Manufacturing Technologies
- – Principal Investigator, Raytheon Corporation
- SBIR – Ultralight Wearable Cooling Systems
- – Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- Bice, Jason E., St. Germain, Echo, Wohlever, Samuel J., Goddard, Grace, Erb, Randall M. (2022). Thermoformable Boron Nitride Based All‐Ceramics. Advanced Materials, 34(42). 10.1002/ADMA.202203939
- Zando, Robert B., Mesgarnejad, Ataollah, Pan, Chunzhou, Shefelbine, Sandra J., Karma, Alain, Erb, Randall M. (2021). Enhanced toughness in ceramic-reinforced polymer composites with herringbone architectures. Composites Science and Technology, 204,108513. 10.1016/J.COMPSCITECH.2020.108513
- A. Gurijala, R.B. Zando, J.L. Faust, J.R. Barber, L. Zhang, R.M. Erb, Castable and Printable Dielectric Composites Exhibiting High Thermal Conductivity via Percolation-Enabled Phonon Transport, Matter, 2(4), 2020, 1015-1024
- J.L. Faust, G.A. Winter, M.L. Minus, R.M. Erb Polypropylene Crystallization at an Alumina Interface Using Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 543, 2019, 9-16
- L. Li, R.M. Erb, J. Wang, J. Wang, Y.M. Chiang Fabrication of Low‐Tortuosity Ultrahigh‐Area‐Capacity Battery Electrodes Through Magnetic Alignment of Emulsion‐Based Slurries, Advanced Energy Materials, 9(2), 2019, 1802472
- R.M. Erb, J.J. Martin, R. Soheilian, C. Pan, J.R. Barber Actuating Soft Matter with Magnetic Torque, Advanced Functional Materials, 26(22), 2016, 3859-3880
- J.S. Sander, R.M. Erb, L. Li, A. Gurijala, Y.-M. Chiang High-Performance Battery Electrodes via Magnetic Templating, Nature Energy, 1, 2016, 16099
- J.J. Martin, B.E. Fiore, R.M. Erb, Designing Bioinspired Composite Reinforcement Architectures Via 3D Magnetic Printing, Nature Communications, 6, 2015, 8641
- R.M. Erb, R.L. Libanori, N. Rothfuchs, A.R. Studart Composites Reinforced in Three Dimensions by Using Low Magnetic Fields, Science, 335, 2012, 199-204
Apr 09, 2025
Patent for Crack-Resistant Composites Utilizing Herringbone Architecture
MIE Professor Randall Erb and BioE/MIE Affiliated Faculty Alain Karma were awarded a patent for “Ceramic-reinforced polymer composites with herringbone architecture.”
Feb 25, 2025
Young Alumni Impact Award Winners Share Their Career Journeys
As part of Engineers Week, Gregory Abowd, dean of the College of Engineering, presented the college’s inaugural Young Alumni Impact Awards to six recent graduates who are transforming industries and inspiring the next generation. The award recipients shared their career journeys and how they turned their experiential education into impactful careers. View the video recap and photo gallery.
Jul 24, 2024
PhD Spotlight: Daniel Braconnier, PhD’23, Mechanical Engineering
Daniel Braconnier, PhD’23, mechanical engineering, led a project developing long-lasting superhydrophobic coatings, resulting in a paper published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. He also developed patent-pending thermally conductive polymer composites.
Feb 02, 2024
Revolutionizing Thermoformable Ceramics
MIE Associate Professor Randall Erb and Jason Hoffman-Bice, PhD’22, mechanical engineering, are working on commercializing thermoformable ceramic matrix composites through their spinout, Fourier. Their work has the potential to transform heat dissipation in electronics. They received a Spark Fund award from the Center for Research Innovation at Northeastern for this work.
Jan 03, 2024
Northeastern Students Develop Robotic Boat To Attack Invasive Plants
A capstone project supervised by ECE Associate Professor Charles DiMarzio and MIE Associate Professor Randall Erb that developed an autonomous robotic boat to map the invasive hydrilla plant has been […]
Dec 15, 2023
Capstone Students Design Robotic Boat To Combat Invasive Plant
Engineering capstone students built an autonomous robotic boat equipped with a hyperspectral camera to map the invasive hydrilla plant and help scientists control its spread in Connecticut waters. The project is a collaboration among the ECE and MIE departments, the Robotics and Intelligent Vehicles Research Lab, and the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.
Oct 04, 2023
Using Iron Powder as a Renewable Energy Source
MIE Professors Yiannis Levendis, Hameed Metghalchi, and Associate Professor Randall Erb were awarded a $600,000 NSF grant, titled “A Study on Burning Iron Particles as Carbon-Free Circular Fuels With Co-Generation of Value-Added Nanomaterials,” to improve the process of burning iron to produce carbon-free renewable energy.
Sep 08, 2023
Spinout Company Fourier LLC To Revolutionize Thermal Management
After pioneering thermoforming technical ceramic matrix composites (CMC’s) last year, MIE Associate Professor Randall Erb and Jason Hoffman-Bice, PhD’22, mechanical engineering, created spinout company Fourier LLC to commercialize their groundbreaking innovation in thermal management.
Jul 24, 2023
Burning Iron Particles To Generate Clean Energy
MIE Professors Yiannis Levendis, Hameed Metghalchi, and Associate Professor Randall Erb were awarded a $600,000 NSF grant for “A Study on Burning Iron Particles as Carbon-Free Circular Fuels With Co-Generation of Value-Added Nanomaterials.”
Jul 20, 2023
Spring 2023 Spark Fund Awardees
MIE Associate Professor Randal Erb, ChE/BioE Associate Professor Eno Ebong, ChE Professor Rebecca Carrier, and MIE Associate Professor Yi Zheng are recipients of the Spring 2023 Spark Fund Awards from Northeastern’s Center for Research Innovation.