C.A. Gilleland and G.B. Thompson
Alabama Materials Institute, The University of Alabama, Alabama, United States
Keywords: Materials Innovation, Extreme Environments, Defense Collaborations, Characterization & Synthesis
The Alabama Materials Institute (AMI) at the University of Alabama integrates synthesis capabilities with advanced characterization to accelerate the development of military-relevant materials through internal research and external federal lab and industrial partnerships. Through a combination of novel processing platforms and cutting-edge analytical instrumentation, AMI enables direct connections between how materials are made, their resulting structures, and their performance in extreme environments. Building on this infrastructure, AMI maintains active collaborations across the national security stakeholders. This includes work with the Army Research Laboratory to advance nanocrystalline materials with enhanced stability and performance, as well as with the Air Force Research Laboratory to design and fabricate novel ultra-high-temperature ceramic fibers for hypersonic applications. AMI also partners with industry through SBIR programs, providing pathways to characterize and transition laboratory discoveries into scalable, field-ready technologies. Collectively, these efforts position AMI as a national hub for national security materials innovation, delivering solutions for materials survivability, propulsion, and extreme environment performance while strengthening public-private partnerships that accelerate technology transition.