About

Christopher Schuh is the John G. Searle Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. His research is focused on structural materials, including metals and ceramics, with an emphasis on controlling disorder in material microstructures to optimize mechanical properties. Schuh's group employs experiments, analytical theory, and computer simulations to explore the processing-structure-property relationships in structural metals and materials. He has published over 250 research articles in academic journals such as Physical Review Letters, Science, and Acta Materialia, where he also serves as a coordinating editor. In addition to his academic work, Schuh is a seasoned entrepreneur who has cofounded several metallurgical companies. His first MIT spin-out, Xtalic Corporation, commercialized a process from his laboratory to control the internal structure of metal electroplated coatings at the nanometer scale, resulting in coatings with exceptional wear and corrosion resistance used in electronic devices. He also cofounded Desktop Metal, a company producing 3D metal printers aimed at addressing various markets with a focus on production scale. Schuh's contributions to the field have been recognized through his fellowships with ASM International and the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, as well as his memberships in the National Academy of Inventors and the National Academy of Engineering.

Research topics

• Metallurgy
• Materials science
• Chemical physics
• Nanotechnology
• Physics
• Computer Science
• Mathematics
• Geology
• Condensed matter physics
• Engineering physics
• Chemistry

Selected publications

• Crossing from thermally activated to drag-controlled plasticity in mild steel as strain rate increases

  Acta Materialia · 2026-03-14

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Modelling plastic impacts between microparticles and substrates with mismatched material properties

  International Journal of Mechanical Sciences · 2026-01-15

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Towards High-Throughput Computation of Phase-and Defect Diagrams

  2026-04-02

  reportOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Why does Re anti-segregate from the grain boundaries in Ni?

  Research Square · 2026-03-13

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Overview: The spectral model of grain boundary segregation

  Acta Materialia · 2026-03-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• 3D Tomography insights on particle-particle bonding in cold spray

  Materialia · 2026-04-07 · 1 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Single particle impact explorations on the role of powder heat treatments in cold spray: Effects of strength and oxide structure

  Journal of Materials Research and Technology · 2025-04-26 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  In cold spray, the optimization of the powder feedstock for improving the final properties of the coating and for improving the process itself are two different objectives. This paper explores the latter, studying the relationship between powder pre-heat treatment and the kinetic bonding between the individual particles and the substrate. Using a laser-induced particle impact test (LIPIT), we investigate the effect of different heat treatments on the critical adhesion velocity of Al 6061. Although heat treatments change the strength of the powders as well as the thickness of the native oxide layer each by as much as ∼50 %, the critical adhesion velocity remains constant to within only ∼10 %. A deeper analysis reveals that these two factors change in somewhat complementary ways for the heat treatments explored here, leading to counteracting effects. By quantitatively evaluating these two microstructural factors in tandem, we find that they are roughly equally important in determining the critical adhesion velocity. These observations thus provide insight for the development of new heat treatment regimens that might lower the adhesion velocity.

  PublisherDOI

• Microscale Metal Additive Manufacturing by Solid‐State Impact Bonding of Shaped Thin Films

  Small · 2025-07-14 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The deposition of device-grade inorganic materials is one key challenge toward the implementation of additive manufacturing (AM) in microfabrication, and to that end, a broad range of physico-chemical principles has been explored for 3D fabrication with micro- and nanoscale resolution. Yet, for metals, a process that achieves material quality rivalling that of established thin-film deposition methods, and at the same time, has the potential to combine high throughput production with a broad palette of processable materials, is still lacking. Here, the kinetic, solid-state bonding of metal thin films for the additive assembly of high-purity, high-density metals with micrometer-scale precision is introduced. Indirect laser ablation accelerates micrometer-thick gold films to hundreds of meters per second without their heating or ablation. Their subsequent impact on the substrate above a critical velocity forms a permanent, metallic bond in the solid state. Stacked layers are of high density (>99%). By defining thin-film layers with established lithographic methods prior to launch, a variable feature size (2-50 µm), arbitrary shape of bonded layers, and parallel transfer of up to 36 independent film units in a single shot, is demonstrated. Thus, the solid-state kinetic bonding principle as a viable and potentially versatile route for micro-scale AM of metals is established.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Multiscale computations of grain boundary solute segregation spectra in Cu polycrystals

  Materialia · 2025-11-15 · 1 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Triple junction solute segregation and the stability of nanocrystalline alloys

  Acta Materialia · 2025-08-10 · 3 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Processing of Functionally Graded Nanocrystalline Alloys

  NSF · $313k · 2006–2009

• Entropy and Phase Transformations in Stable Nanocrystalline Alloys

  NSF · $426k · 2020–2023

• Computation of Grain Boundary Energy Landscapes as a Tool for Grain Boundary Engineering

  NSF · $395k · 2013–2016

• Quantifying Material Microstructures with Quaternions

  NSF · $315k · 2009–2012

• Accelerated Sintering in "Nano-Duplex" Dual Phase Nanostructured Alloys

  NSF · $413k · 2016–2019

Frequent coauthors

• Angela C. Scott

  Mount Vernon Hospital

  72 shared

• Frank E. Wagstaff

  45 shared

• Alexander P. Scott

  Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science

  45 shared

• W. J. Boettinger

  Norwegian University of Science and Technology

  45 shared

• K. N. Tu

  City University of Hong Kong

  45 shared

• Keith A. Nelson

  42 shared

• Diran Apelian

  37 shared

• R Euel

  Alcoa (United States)

  36 shared

Labs

• Schuh GroupPI

Awards & honors

• Fellow of ASM International
• Fellow of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society
• Member of the National Academy of Inventors
• Member of the National Academy of Engineering