Nathan Crane

Nathan Crane joined the faculty of BYU as professor of mechanical engineering in 2018 after 12 years at the University of South Florida. Dr. Crane completed a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Materials Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005 and earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT in 1998 and 1999 respectively. He has enjoyed solving problems in industry (Caldera Engineering and Pratt and Whitney Aircraft) government (Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratories), and academia. Dr. Crane also has experience as an expert witness in intellectual property issues.

Dr. Crane’s interests lay in the areas of design, materials and advanced manufacturing with a particular interest in additive manufacturing (AM) and digital microfluidics. His work focuses on applying material science, mechanical design, and processing science to enable novel manufacturing processes. Examples of recent projects include area-based AM through projection sintering, AM of radio-frequency (RF) electronics, microscale actuation using droplet microfluidics, biodegradation of magnesium, wetting transitions in textured surfaces and capillary self-assembly. His work has been recognized with an NSF graduate research fellowship, the 2005 Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium (SFF) Best Paper Award, a 2014 Fulbright Scholar, and a 2015 USF Outstanding Faculty Award.