Eric Payton

Dr. Payton’s laboratory addresses the sustainability of critical materials through fundamental research into alloy design, discovery, and processing, enabling design engineers to balance performance with responsible resource utilization. Employing state-of-the-art computational and quantitative characterization techniques, his group seeks to lend insights into microstructure evolution during processing and chemo-mechanical environmental interactions in service, then use this knowledge to develop practical tools for predicting material properties. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Cincinnati in 2022, Dr. Payton served for five years as the Research Leader for the Metallic Materials and Processing Team at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate. Before entering government service, he was an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and held post-doctoral positions at both Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany and the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin, Germany. He obtained his doctorate in Materials Science and Engineering from The Ohio State University. Dr. Payton’s colleagues suspect he would be a good addition to their trivia night team; however, his area of trivia mastery may be limited to turn-of-the century musicians. Dr. Payton is an enthusiastic advocate of scientific collaboration, structured programming, learner-centered pedagogy, and vegetables.

PhD: Ohio State 2009 (Materials Science and Engineering)

MS: Ohio State 2007 (Materials Science and Engineering)

BS: Virginia Tech 2003 (Materials Science and Engineering)

Materials sustainability; alloy discovery and design; metals processing science; critical materials; quantitative characterization; microstructure modeling and simulation
 

Investigators:Payton, Eric 06-01-2023 -12-31-2023 DNV Microstructure Investigation of Deep Sea Steel Components Role:PI 19581.00 Hold Level:Industry

Grant: #ITE-2322605 Investigators:Honken, Nora; Kwuimy, Cedrick; Payton, Eric; Paz y Puente, Ashley 10-01-2023 -09-30-2026 National Science Foundation Pivots: Reskilling Education Via Advanced Manufacturing Practicum (REVAMP) Role:Collaborator 999997.00 Awarded Level:Federal

Grant: #EEC-2349580 Investigators:Bellur, Kishan; Payton, Eric; Reeping, David; Rowe, Annette; Steiner, Matthew; Sun, Ying; Watzman, Sarah; Webb, Amanda 04-01-2024 -03-31-2027 National Science Foundation REU Site: Research Experiences for American Leadership of Industry with Zero Emissions by 2050 (REALIZE-2050) Role:Collaborator 445485.00 Active Level:Federal

Grant: #SFTC Investigators:Payton, Eric 09-01-2023 -02-28-2024 Department of Energy Short Courses in Software Tools for Alloy and Process Optimization Role:PI 99113.00 Hold Level:Federal

Investigators:Payton, Eric 05-01-2024 -05-15-2024 Rhenium Alloys Inc. CALPHAD calculations on Mo-Re-W Role:PI 768.00 Hold Level:Industry

Grant: #24-25 Forging Club Grant Investigators:Payton, Eric 08-01-2024 -07-31-2025 Forging Industry Educational and Research Foundation University of Cincinnati Forging Club Starter Grant Role:PI 5000.00 Hold Level:Non Profit

Investigators:Payton, Eric 02-01-2024 -01-31-2025 Materials Resources, LLC Characterization of Additively Manufactured Particle Strengthened Alloys Role:PI 18889.00 Hold Level:Industry

Investigators:Payton, Eric 08-26-2024 -12-14-2024 DNV Forensic Metallurgy of Pipeline Steel Thermal Histories Role:PI 25500.00 Hold Level:Industry

Grant: #22-01-EWD-6104 (DE- EE0007897) Investigators:Payton, Eric 01-21-2025 -07-20-2025 Department of Energy Short Courses in Software Tools for Alloy and Process Optimization Role:PI 0.00 Hold Level:Federal

Grant: #10540821 (89303321-CEM-0000800) Investigators:Payton, Eric 01-01-2025 -09-30-2025 Department of Energy Martensite formation and microstructure evolution during high deformation forming of low carbon stainless steels Role:PI 35411.00 Hold Level:Federal

Grant: #RAPIDS 7 Investigators:Burdette, Aaron; Goodman, Christopher; Jog, Milind; Payton, Eric; Paz y Puente, Ashley 03-24-2025 -06-30-2026 Ohio Department of Higher Education Strategic Training Equipment in Advanced Manufacturing for Southwest Ohio Regional Development (STEAM SWORD) Role:PI 325000.00 Hold Level:Ohio, State of

Grant: #MRL-25-104G-3 / HQ0034-24-2-0008 Investigators:Payton, Eric 11-15-2025 -08-25-2026 Department of Defense Qualification and Certification of Metal Additive Manufacturing to Replace Hard to Source Repair Parts Phase IV Role:PI 181160.40 Hold Level:Federal

Peer Reviewed Publications

Wang G.; Xu D.S.; Ma N.; Zhou N.; Payton E.J.; Yang R.; Mills M.J.; Wang Y.  (01-01-2009). Simulation study of effects of initial particle size distribution on dissolution. Acta Materialia, 57 (2) , 316-325More Information

Payton E.; Wang G.; Ma N.; Wang Y.; Mills M.; Whitis D.; Mourer D.; Wei D.  (01-01-2008). Integration of simulations and experiments for modeling superalloy grain growth. Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Superalloys, 975-984More Information

Payton E.; Phillips P.; Mills M.  (04-25-2010). Semi-automated characterization of the gamma prime phase in Ni-based superalloys via high-resolution backscatter imaging. Materials Science and Engineering A, 527 (10-11) , 2684-2692More Information

Rao J.C.; Payton E.J.; Somsen C.; Neuking K.; Eggeler G.; Kostka A.; Dos Santos J.F.  (04-01-2010). Where Does the Lithium Go? - A Study of the Precipitates in the Stir Zone of a Friction Stir Weld in Friction Stir Weld in a Li-containing 2xxx Series Al Alloy. Advanced Engineering Materials, 12 (4) , 298-303More Information

Prokofiev E.A.; Burow J.A.; Payton E.J.; Zarnetta R.; Frenzel J.; Gunderov D.V.; Valiev R.Z.; Eggeler G.  (08-01-2010). Suppression of Ni4Ti3 precipitation by grain size refinement in Ni-Rich NiTi Shape Memory Alloys. Advanced Engineering Materials, 12 (8) , 747-753More Information

Dziaszyk S.; Payton E.; Friedel F.; Marx V.; Eggeler G.  (11-15-2010). On the characterization of recrystallized fraction using electron backscatter diffraction: A direct comparison to local hardness in an IF steel using nanoindentation. Materials Science and Engineering A, 527 (29-30) , 7854-7864More Information

Springer H.; Kostka A.; Payton E.J.; Raabe D.; Kaysser-Pyzalla A.; Eggeler G.  (02-01-2011). On the formation and growth of intermetallic phases during interdiffusion between low-carbon steel and aluminum alloys. Acta Materialia, 59 (4) , 1586-1600More Information

Frenzel J.; Burow J.; Payton E.; Rezanka S.; Eggeler G.  (04-01-2011). Improvement of NiTi shape memory actuator performance through ultra-fine grained and nanocrystalline microstructures. Advanced Engineering Materials, 13 (4) , 256-268More Information

Payton E.; Mills M.  (06-01-2011). Stereology of backscatter electron images of etched surfaces for characterization of particle size distributions and volume fractions: Estimation of imaging bias via Monte Carlo simulations. Materials Characterization, 62 (6) , 563-574More Information

Wang G.; Xu D.S.; Payton E.J.; Ma N.; Yang R.; Mills M.J.; Wang Y.  (06-01-2011). Mean-field statistical simulation of grain coarsening in the presence of stable and unstable pinning particles. Acta Materialia, 59 (11) , 4587-4594More Information

Kurumlu D.; Payton E.J.; Young M.L.; Schöbel M.; Requena G.; Eggeler G.  (01-01-2012). High-temperature strength and damage evolution in short fiber reinforced aluminum alloys studied by miniature creep testing and synchrotron microtomography. Acta Materialia, 60 (1) , 67-78More Information

Otto F.; Payton E.; Frenzel J.; Eggeler G.  (03-01-2012). The effectiveness of coincidence site lattice criteria in predicting creep cavitation resistance. Journal of Materials Science, 47 (6) , 2915-2927More Information

Otto F.; Viswanathan G.B.; Payton E.J.; Frenzel J.; Eggeler G.  (04-01-2012). On the effect of grain boundary segregation on creep and creep rupture. Acta Materialia, 60 (6-7) , 2982-2998More Information

Payton E.; Aghajani A.; Otto F.; Eggeler G.; Yardley V.  (06-01-2012). On the nature of internal interfaces in a tempered martensite ferritic steel and their evolution during long-term creep. Scripta Materialia, 66 (12) , 1045-1048More Information

Semiatin S.L.; McClary K.E.; Rollett A.D.; Roberts C.G.; Payton E.J.; Zhang F.; Gabb T.P.  (05-01-2012). Microstructure evolution during supersolvus heat treatment of a powder metallurgy nickel-base superalloy. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A: Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science, 43 (5) , 1649-1661More Information

Payton E.; Wynn T.; Mills M.  (10-01-2012). Experimental measurement of the kinetics of gamma prime dissolution during supersolvus heat treatment of powder metallurgical Ni-based disk superalloys. Journal of Materials Science, 47 (20) , 7305-7311More Information

Kurumlu D.; Payton E.; Somsen C.; Dlouhy A.; Eggeler G.  (10-01-2012). On the presence of work-hardened zones around fibers in a short-fiber-reinforced Al metal matrix composite. Acta Materialia, 60 (17) , 6051-6064More Information

Payton E.; Wang G.; Mills M.; Wang Y.  (02-01-2013). Effect of initial grain size on grain coarsening in the presence of an unstable population of pinning particles. Acta Materialia, 61 (4) , 1316-1326More Information

Semiatin S.L.; McClary K.E.; Rollett A.D.; Roberts C.G.; Payton E.J.; Zhang F.; Gabb T.P.  (06-01-2013). Plastic flow and microstructure evolution during thermomechanical processing of a PM nickel-base superalloy. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A: Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science, 44 (6) , 2778-2798More Information

Payton E.; Nolze G.  (08-01-2013). The backscatter electron signal as an additional tool for phase segmentation in electron backscatter diffraction. Microscopy and Microanalysis, 19 (4) , 929-941More Information

Yardley V.A.; Fahimi S.; Payton E.J.  (03-01-2015). Classification of creep crack and cavitation sites in tempered martensite ferritic steel microstructure. Materials Science and Technology (United Kingdom), 31 (5) , 547-553More Information

Yardley V.A.; Fahimi S.; Payton E.J.  (01-01-2015). Classification of creep crack and cavitation sites in tempered martensite ferritic steel microstructure. Energy Materials: Materials Science and Engineering for Energy Systems, 10 (1) , 547-553More Information

Yardley V.; Payton E.  (01-01-2014). Austenite–martensite/bainite orientation relationship: Characterisation parameters and their application. Materials Science and Technology (United Kingdom), 30 (9) , 1125-1130More Information

Coutinho Y.A.; Rooney S.C.K.; Payton E.J.  (05-01-2017). Analysis of EBSD Grain Size Measurements Using Microstructure Simulations and a Customizable Pattern Matching Library. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A: Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science, 48 (5) , 2375-2395More Information

Miller V.M.; Payton E.J.; Pilchak A.L.  (07-15-2017). Reduction in the thermodynamic nucleation barrier via the heteroepitaxial recrystallization mechanism. Scripta Materialia, 136, 128-131More Information

Semiatin S.L.; Levkulich N.C.; Saurber A.E.; Mahaffey D.W.; Payton E.J.; Senkov O.N.  (11-01-2017). The Kinetics of Precipitate Dissolution in a Nickel-Base Superalloy. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A: Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science, 48 (11) , 5567-5578More Information

Sinha V.; Payton E.J.; Gonzales M.; Abrahams R.A.; Song B.S.  (12-01-2017). Delineation of Prior Austenite Grain Boundaries in a Low-Alloy High-Performance Steel. Metallography, Microstructure, and Analysis, 6 (6) , 610-618More Information

Gerlt A.R.C.; Picard R.S.; Saurber A.E.; Criner A.K.; Semiatin S.L.; Payton E.J.  (10-01-2018). A Transfer Function for Relating Mean 2D Cross-Section Measurements to Mean 3D Particle Sizes. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A: Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science, 49 (10) , 4424-4428More Information

Gerlt A.R.C.; Criner A.K.; Semiatin L.; Payton E.J.  (01-01-2019). On the grain size proportionality constants calculated in M.I. Mendelson's “Average Grain Size in Polycrystalline Ceramics”. Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 102 (1) , 37-41More Information

Brust A.F.; Niezgoda S.R.; Yardley V.A.; Payton E.J.  (02-15-2019). Analysis of Misorientation Relationships Between Austenite Parents and Twins. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A: Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science, 50 (2) , 837-855More Information

Senkov O.N.; Zhang C.; Pilchak A.L.; Payton E.J.; Woodward C.; Zhang F.  (04-30-2019). CALPHAD-aided development of quaternary multi-principal element refractory alloys based on NbTiZr. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 783, 729-742More Information

Semiatin S.L.; Levkulich N.C.; Gerlt A.R.C.; Payton E.J.; Tiley J.S.; Zhang F.; MacKay R.A.; Miner R.V.; Gabb T.P.  (01-01-2019). High-Temperature Static Coarsening of Gamma-Prime Precipitates in NiAlCr-X Single Crystals. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A: Physical Metallurgy and Materials ScienceMore Information

Semiatin S.L.; Obstalecki M.; Payton E.J.; Pilchak A.L.; Shade P.A.; Levkulich N.C.; Shank J.M.; Pagan D.C.; Zhang F.; Tiley J.S.  (01-01-2019). Dissolution of the Alpha Phase in Ti-6Al-4V During Isothermal and Continuous Heat Treatment. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A: Physical Metallurgy and Materials ScienceMore Information

Brust A.F.; Payton E.J.; Hobbs T.J.; Niezgoda S.R.  (08-01-2019). Application of the maximum flow-minimum cut algorithm to segmentation and clustering of materials da. Microscopy and Microanalysis, 25 (4) , 924-941More Information

Payton E.J.; Gerlt A.R.C.; Pilchak A.L.  (08-14-2019). Simulations of the relative importance of initial size advantage and boundary energy anisotropy in abnormal grain growth. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1270 (1) More Information

Sinha V.; Gonzales M.; Abrahams R.A.; Song B.S.; Payton E.J.  (01-01-2020). Correlative microscopy for quantification of prior austenite grain size in AF9628 steel. Materials Characterization, 159More Information

Sinha V.; Gonzales M.; Payton E.J.  (12-01-2019). Datasets acquired with correlative microscopy method for delineation of prior austenite grain boundaries. Data in Brief, 27More Information

Brust A.F.; Payton E.J.; Sinha V.; Yardley V.A.; Niezgoda S.R.  (01-01-2020). Characterization of Martensite Orientation Relationships in Steels and Ferrous Alloys from EBSD Data. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A: Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science, 51 (1) , 142-153More Information

Brunson Z.D.; Pilchak A.L.; Rao S.; Payton E.J.; Stebner A.P.  (10-01-2020). An Expanded Martensite Variant Selection Theory Accounting for Transformation Rotations and Applied Stress Fields: Predictions of Variant Clusters in Titanium. JOM, 72 (10) , 3594-3607More Information

Gerlt A.R.C.; Criner A.K.; Semiatin S.L.; Wertz K.N.; Payton E.J.  (01-01-2021). Non-linear Transfer Functions for Accurately Estimating 3D Particle Size, Distribution, and Expected Error from 2D Cross Sections of a Lognormal Distribution of Spherical Particles. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A: Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science, 52 (1) , 228-241More Information

Senkov O.N.; Daboiku T.I.; Butler T.M.; Titus M.S.; Philips N.R.; Payton E.J.  (04-01-2021). High-temperature mechanical properties and oxidation behavior of Hf-27Ta and Hf-21Ta-21X (X is Nb, Mo or W) alloys. International Journal of Refractory Metals and Hard Materials, 96, 105647More Information

Levkulich N.C.; Semiatin S.L.; Payton E.J.; Srivatsa S.; Pilchak A.L.  (04-01-2021). An Investigation of the Development of Coarse Grains During Beta Annealing of Hot-Forged Ti-6Al-4V. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A: Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science, 52 (4) , 1353-1367More Information

Senkov O.N.; Kuhr S.J.; Shank J.M.; Payton E.J.; Woodward C.  (05-13-2021). Microstructure and properties of an equiatomic TaTiZr alloy. Materials Science and Engineering A, 814More Information

Brust A.; Payton E.; Hobbs T.; Sinha V.; Yardley V.; Niezgoda S.  (10-30-2021). Probabilistic Reconstruction of Austenite Microstructure from Electron Backscatter Diffraction Observations. Microscopy and Microanalysis, 27 (5) , 1035-1055More Information

Amiri M.; Payton E.J.  (12-01-2021). An analytical model for prediction of denudation zone width in laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing. Additive Manufacturing, 48More Information

Senkov O.N.; Gorsse S.; Wheeler R.; Payton E.J.; Miracle D.B.  (11-01-2021). Effect of Re on the microstructure and mechanical properties of NbTiZr and TaTiZr equiatomic alloys. Metals, 11 (11) More Information

Senkov O.N.; Daboiku T.I.; Butler T.M.; Detor A.; Payton E.J.  (02-01-2022). Effect of Mo on the microstructure and mechanical properties of (73Hf27Ta)(100-X)MoX (X = 0, 5, 16, 21 and 30 at.%) alloys. International Journal of Refractory Metals and Hard Materials, 103, 105737More Information

Hager E.M.; O'Hara R.P.; Cobb, G.R.; Flater, P.J.; Payton E.J.; Sinha, V.; Doane, B.M.; Kemnitz, R.A.  (03-24-2022). Development of high density parts in the low-alloy, high-performance steel AF9628 using laser powder bed fusion. Materials Science and Engineering A, 838, 142656More Information

Choi W.J.; Kulak M.J.; Kim C.; Payton E.J.; Rudolf C.; Kang W.  (06-01-2022). Electro-thermo-mechanical characterization of microscale Ti-6Al-4V wires using an innovative experimental method. Materials Characterization, 188, 111927More Information

Thome, Pascal; Schneider, Mike; Yardley, Victoria A; Payton, Eric J; Eggeler, Gunther  (2023). Local Maxima in Martensite Start Temperatures in the Transition Region between Lath and Plate Martensite in Fe-Ni Alloys. Materials (Basel, Switzerland), 16 (4) More Information

MET 2032 Materials Science Level:Undergraduate

MTEN 5120-6020 Materials Kinetics Level:Both

MTEN-INTR 3014 Green Gold Rush - Critical Materials in the Race to a Sustainable Future Level:Undergraduate

MTEN 5105-6005 Materials Thermodynamics Level:Both