About
Krzysztof “Kris” Stopka
Computational materials scientist, experimentalist, and mentor working at the intersection of advanced manufacturing, mechanics, and fatigue.
I am a Lead Research Engineer in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University, where I work with Dr. Michael D. Sangid in the Advanced Computational Materials and Experimental Evaluation Laboratory.
My research lies at the interface of advanced manufacturing, materials science, crystal plasticity, computational mechanics, fatigue and fracture, scientific machine learning, and high-energy X-ray microscopy. I earned my Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2021 under the advisement of Dr. David L. McDowell. My dissertation developed integrated computational materials engineering workflows for microstructure-sensitive fatigue of advanced alloys.
Before graduate school, I gained industry experience at GE Aviation, Tesla, and SpaceX. These experiences continue to shape my interest in research that connects fundamental mechanics with practical materials qualification.
Mentorship is central to my work, especially helping students develop confidence, independence, and a clear sense of purpose early in their academic careers. My long-term goal is to lead an academic research group that integrates mechanics-based computation, revealing experiments, and data-driven materials science.