Tim Foecke

Foecke was born in Missouri, moving at age two to Edina, Minnesota and at age twelve to a farm north of Howard Lake, Minnesota. He graduated from Howard Lake-Waverly High School in 1982. When he was a high school senior, and the chemistry teacher was ill for three months, he taught chemistry to the juniors.

Foecke received a bachelor's degree in 1986 and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering in 1991, both from the University of Minnesota.{{Citation

| title = University of Minnesota

| url=http://www1.umn.edu/news/features/2007/UR_130859_REGION1.html

| accessdate = 2010-12-05}} His thesis work, completed under Professor William W. Gerberich, involved the interaction of cracks and crack tip emitted dislocations on toughening in crystals and measured the effect of lattice flow stress on the critical stress intensity for dislocation emission from a Mode I crack in a series of single crystal alkali halide solid solutions.

He was awarded a National Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship at NIST to work with Dr. Robb M. Thomson in 1991 to study dislocation generation and motion in nanomaterials. He observed the generation and motion of Orowan dislocations from misfit interfacial sources in single crystal Cu/Ni nanolayered composites in an in situ TEM deformation experiment.

Foecke is a second cousin to NFL placekicker Adam Vinatieri (their mothers were first cousins) and is a third cousin of Evel Knievel.Phillips, J.D. [http://euclid.nmu.edu/~jophilli/genealogical-amusements.html Genealogical Amusements]. North Michigan University. Retrieved 9 January 2014.

Beginning in 1996, Foecke has been involved in the forensic examination of the structure and mechanical properties of metals recovered from the wreck of the RMS Titanic, and has been involved in expeditions in 1996, 1998, and 2004.{{Citation

| title = RMS Titanic Inc.

| url=http://www.rmstitanic.net/index.php4?page=319

| accessdate = 2010-12-05}} He performed experiments on several hull fragments and definitively disproved the theory that the steel used to construct the hull of the Titanic was inferior and brittle. He was the originator of the "rivet theory" to explain the rapid sinking of the Titanic.{{Citation

| title = Faulty Rivets Emerge as Clues To Titanic Disaster

| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE1DB133AF934A15752C0A96E958260&pagewanted=1

| accessdate = 2010-12-05

| work=The New York Times

| first=William J.

| last=Broad

| date=January 27, 1998}} His initial report on the hull steel and rivets was published in 1998.{{Citation

| title = NIST Personnel Web Page

| url=https://www.nist.gov/mml/metallurgy/timothy_foecke.cfm

| accessdate = 2010-12-02}} This study was greatly expanded in collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Hooper McCarty in her Ph.D. thesis work at Johns Hopkins University and was published in 2008 in the book "What Really Sank the Titanic - New Forensic Discoveries" (Citadel Press){{Citation

| title = In Weak Rivets, A Possible Key to Titanic's Doom

| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/science/15titanic.html

| accessdate = 2010-12-01

| work=The New York Times

| first=William J.

| last=Broad

| date=April 15, 2008}} and has been published as a German translation "Warum sank die Titanic wirklich?: Neue forensische Erkenntnisse (Springer Vieweg) (2012)".

Foecke was a member of the National Construction Safety Team that analyzed the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001,{{Citation

| title = NIST and the World Trade Center

| url=http://wtc.nist.gov/

| accessdate = 2007-11-12}} and was responsible for all failure analysis and fractography of steel components, forensic image analysis of images and video footage contributed by the public and media organizations to identify damage and failure mechanisms of the steel components impacted by the aircraft and ascertain the integrity of the fireproofing on the steel, and investigations looking into evidence of maximum temperatures reached by recovered building components.

Foecke led a project at NIST that created a finite element model of the wreck of the USS Arizona, attempting to estimate the remaining lifespan before the collapse and to provide a mechanism to test remediation techniques before implementing them on the monument.{{Citation

| title = One Last Mission for Ship Sunk in Pearl Harbor Attack | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/06/AR2006120601916.html | accessdate = 2010-12-01 | newspaper=The Washington Post | first=Michael E. | last=Ruane | date=December 7, 2006}} Foecke is also a consultant on conservation efforts on the wrecks of the CSS Hunley and USS Monitor.{{Citation

| title = NIST Technicalendar

| url=http://nvl.nist.gov/pub/nistpubs/calendars/techcal/2006/062306-tc.htm

| accessdate = 2010-12-05}}

Foecke has been involved in a project attempting to stabilize and conserve the Inconel components of the Apollo 11 first stage Rocketdyne F-1 engine recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.{{Citation

| title = Bezos Expeditions F-1 Engine Recovery

| url=http://www.bezosexpeditions.com/updates.html

| accessdate = 2016-04-21}}

He has been involved in several television science productions as an interviewee and consultant, including Titanic - Anatomy of a Disaster (Discovery Channel), Titanic Live (Discovery Channel), Titanic - Answers from the Abyss (Discovery Channel), Collapse of the World Trade Center (Discovery Canada), Seconds from Disaster - Sinking of the RMS Titanic (National Geographic Channel), Living in a Material World (Discovery Science Channel), Return to Titanic (National Geographic Channel), Science of Superhuman Strength (Discovery Channel), and Humanless Earth (NOVA).

Foecke's work has been covered in the media extensively, with front-page articles in The New York Times {{Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/science/15titanic.html | title=In Weak Rivets, a Possible Key to Titanic's Doom | newspaper=The New York Times | date=15 April 2008 | last1=Broad | first1=William J. }}{{Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/27/science/faulty-rivets-emerge-as-clues-to-titanic-disaster.html | title=Faulty Rivets Emerge as Clues to Titanic Disaster | newspaper=The New York Times | date=27 January 1998 | last1=Broad | first1=William J. }} and The Washington Post,{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/02/18/a-chilling-theory-about-the-titanic/a38388ac-e6a1-4b43-9570-49bc09207c2a/ |title=A CHILLING THEORY ABOUT THE TITANIC |date=1998-02-18 |author1=Michael E. Ruane |newspaper=The Washington Post |place=Washington, D.C. |issn=0190-8286 |oclc=1330888409}}{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/06/AR2006120601916.html |title=One Last Mission for Ship Sunk in Pearl Harbor Attack |date=December 7, 2006 |first=Michael E. |last=Ruane |newspaper=The Washington Post |accessdate=2022-07-01}} as well as interviews with TV, radio and print media around the world. He was one of the first "mystery guests" on the NPR series Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, appearing on the 5th ever broadcast on January 31, 1998.{{Cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/archrndwn/1998/jan/980131.waitwait.html |title=Wait Wait -- Don't Tell Me! |website=NPR |access-date=2018-11-06 |archive-date=2018-11-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181107010216/https://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/archrndwn/1998/jan/980131.waitwait.html |url-status=dead }}

Foecke helped the Science Museum of Maryland in Baltimore develop the exhibit "Science of the Titanic", which tours children's museums in the US {{Citation

| title = Titanic Science

| url=http://www.titanicscience.com/TSci-ActivityGuideFinal.pdf

| accessdate = 2010-12-01}} and has delivered over 200 presentations to school groups from elementary to college on various forensic topics, including "What Sank the Titanic" and "Cool, Old, Famous Broken Stuff", attempting to interest kids in STEM field careers.

Foecke is the founder and past director of the NIST Center for Automotive Lightweighting,{{Citation

| title = NCAL

| journal=NIST

| date=22 January 2013

| url=https://www.nist.gov/lightweighting

| accessdate = 2016-03-23}} the mission is helping the US auto industry get lighter, next-generation materials into vehicle bodies. A $4M, congressionally-funded project, current work involves complex, multipath, and high-rate testing of materials such as carbon fiber composites and advanced high-strength steels and using the data to generate constitutive models used in finite element design of car bodies and the needed manufacturing tools.

Foecke was a consultant to the National Capital Planning Commission on materials selection and durability for the Eisenhower Memorial on Maryland Avenue in Washington, DC.

From 2001-2012, Foecke was an adjunct professor of materials science and engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and since 2010 has been an adjunct professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Maryland - College Park,{{cite web|url=http://ep.jhu.edu/course-homepages/viewpage.php?homepage_id=2956|title=EP Homepages|author=Johns Hopkins University|accessdate=December 2, 2010}}{{cite web|url=http://www.mse.umd.edu/facstaff/faculty-list.html|title=Materials Science and Engineering Faculty|author=University of Maryland|accessdate=December 1, 2010}} teaching courses in thermodynamics/kinetics of materials, structure/property relationships in materials and he developed a new course in engineering materials selection, which after one year as an elective was moved by the department to be a required core class. In 2017 he expanded the curriculum with a class on high-strength metallic materials and a University Honors seminar course on the root causes of historic engineering failures. Foecke retired from federal government service after 28 years in November 2019 and joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Maryland - College Park full-time as a lecturing professor until May 2022.

Foecke has a Bacon Number of 2 {{Citation

| title = Oracle of Bacon - Tim Foecke

| url=http://oracleofbacon.org/

| accessdate = 2012-09-10}} (Martin Sheen having been the narrator of the Discovery Channel documentary Titanic-Anatomy of a Disaster, and co-starred in the movie JFK with Kevin Bacon), and an Erdős number of 4 {{Citation

| title = The Erdős Project - Tim Foecke

| url=http://www.oakland.edu/enp/

| accessdate = 2012-09-10}} (via Robb Thomson to Peter Bergmann To Ernst G. Straus to Paul Erdős), giving him an Erdős–Bacon number of 6.

US 10,761,002 - "Shear Loader and Performing Pure Mode II or Mixed Mode I and Mode II Shear Loading", with Matthias Merzkirch and Edward Pompa (September 1, 2020).

• Exxon Fellowship (1986–1991)
• Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award (1990)
• National Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellow (1991–1993){{Citation | title = NRC Associates Program

| url=http://nrc58.nas.edu/aodir/gen_page.asp?mode=detail&sql=idnumber='912332'

| accessdate = 2010-12-01}}

• The Captain Joseph Linnard Prize of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (1997){{cite web|url=http://www.sname.org/SNAME/SNAME/Directories/ProgramsResources/Awards/ABSLinnardPrize/Default.aspx|title=ABS Linnard Prize|author=The Society of Naval Architects & Marine Engineers|accessdate=December 2, 2010}}
• Named "Hero of Public Service" by the Council for Excellence in Government and the Ford Foundation (1998){{cite web|url=http://www.metallurgy.nist.gov/techactv1998/AnnualReport1998.pdf|title=NISTIR 6250 Metallurgy Division 1998 Annual Reportl|author=NIST|accessdate=December 5, 2010}}
• United States Department of Commerce Gold Medal (for his part in the World Trade Center collapse investigation) (2005){{cite web|url=http://nvl.nist.gov/docspub/NIST_History_Vols/sp955_suppl_pdf/sp955_suppl_09_Appendix_G.pdf|title=DOC Gold Medal|author=NIST|accessdate=December 5, 2010}}
• NIST - William P. Slichter Award (recognizing excellence in interactions with industry) (2011)
• Excellence in Teaching Award (College Level) - Maryland Association of Science Teachers (2012)
• Distinguished Team Award (shared) - US Department of Energy (2019) - For advanced mechanical testing of carbon fiber composites for automotive lightweighting

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.nist.gov/msel/metallurgy/timothy_foecke.cfm Timothy Foecke] Director - NIST Center for Automotive Lightweighting (NCAL)
• [http://www.csititanic.com/bios-foecke.php CSI: Titanic Biography]
• [http://ep.jhu.edu/course-homepages/viewpage.php?homepage_id=2956 JHU Course Homepage]
• {{IMDb name|2836037}}

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Category:1963 births

Category:Living people

Category:University of Minnesota alumni

Category:American metallurgists

Category:Department of Commerce Gold Medal