Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Materials Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1999
  • B.S., Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, 1991
Licenses & Certifications
  • Professional Engineer Metallurgical, Massachusetts, #48473
  • ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE)

Dr. Verghese specializes in materials engineering, and is experienced at failure analysis, product development, reliability engineering, material characterization, and materials selection. He has investigated materials issues in a number of industrial, building, and consumer product areas.

These investigations included glass articles (containers, windows/glazing, guard rails, electronic displays, tables/shelves, laminated glass, toughened glass), consumer electronics, consumer appliances, active and passive medical devices and implants, semiconductor devices, fiber optic subsystems and components, electric power infrastructure, building materials, and fittings and fasteners.

Key areas of investigation include fracture of glass, ceramics, semiconductors, metals, and polymers; delamination and debonding; corrosion, fatigue, and environmentally assisted cracking; fretting and wear; contaminant analysis; failures of adhesives and seals; electronic material failures (varistors, integrated circuit chips, printed circuit boards, solder joints, metallic whiskers); thin film and coating failures (anodization, inks, paints, dielectrics, oleophobic and hydrophobic coatings); cosmetic defects; and materials-based design reviews.

Dr. Verghese has prior industry experience in product development, manufacturing, and quality and reliability of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), high frequency microelectronics, and fiber optic components and systems. Before joining Exponent, Dr. Verghese was a reliability engineer in the Semiconductor Products Group at Agilent Technologies, Inc., and a product development engineer at Axsun Technologies, Inc. At Agilent, he was responsible for reliability assessment and qualification of high volume RF devices. At Axsun, he led a MEMS device team and developed test capabilities, packaging processes, and yield improvements for a fiber optic spectrometer. Dr. Verghese has also taught "Introduction to Materials" in the College of Engineering at San Jose State University.