Evan Brown

Dr. Brown's general areas of expertise include failure analysis, materials fracture, materials science and processing including nano-/micro- scale fabrication for both room and high temperature applications, electrochemistry, and materials characterization methods with an emphasis on nano-/micro- scale techniques. He specializes in a variety of materials-related issues in the area of consumer electronics, including display failure analyses, characterization and failure analysis of thin films, contamination analyses, and tin whisker-induced failures.

In addition, Dr. Brown is experienced with the formation of anodized aluminum and failure analysis of a wide range of its associated issues. As part of fracture analysis in brittle materials, such as glass and both single-crystal and polycrystalline ceramics, Dr. Brown routinely performs analyses of stress-at-failure, fracture origin identification, and assessment of the cause of fracture.

Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Brown was a Graduate Research Assistant in the Solid Ionics and Electroceramics group at Caltech, where he received his doctoral degree in 2011. His thesis work revolved around the synthesis and testing of various electrode and electrolyte structures for use in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs). This included the fabrication of ceramic thin films, nanowires, and inverse opals, as well as metallic thin films and two-dimensional anti-dot networks. He is familiar with a wide range of thermal and chemical stability issues associated with fuel cell systems. Often to those ends, he has utilized techniques such as SEM, TEM, AFM, Raman spectroscopy, and XRD to describe functional SOFC materials and their associated microstructures.

Additionally, Dr. Brown has worked at the Nanoscale Materials and Electronics group at UC Irvine developing anodic alumina as a template for controlled ZnO nanowire growth. He has also been a teaching assistant for the Caltech course entitled "Solid State Electrochemistry for Energy Storage and Conversion."