Klaus-Dieter Liss is a research professor with the University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute’s Clean Manufacturing and Advanced Materials Convergent Research Initiative. His research primarily focuses on materials science and their physics, emphasizing in situ investigations of materials undergoing thermal and thermo-mechanical processes, as well as time-resolved studies spanning timescales from picoseconds to hours.

Liss specializes in metals, with a particular emphasis on refractory metals for high-temperature energy applications and complex concentrated alloys, including high-entropy alloys, which exhibit diverse physical and mechanical properties. His research extends to far out-of-equilibrium systems and materials under extreme and harsh conditions. Additionally, light metal alloys are explored for lightweight aerospace applications, and composite materials, including ceramics, are studied for their enhanced properties for future applications. The applications of such research outcomes will be expanded into the design of novel functional materials.

The goal of Liss’ research is to develop materials through in situ microstructural design, achieving novel and unprecedented properties, both structural and functional. His work aims to address the missing pieces in the understanding and modeling of materials, such as mechanisms of recrystallization, grain refinement or growth, plastic deformation systems, their dynamics and kinetics, and changes in physical properties, including electronic and heat transport, magnetism, and multiferroicity.

Liss has had a distinguished bi-modal career as both an academic and a facility scientist at various international institutions. He has held full professorships at Technion, Israel, and Guangdong Technion, China, and served as an Honorary Professor at the University of Wollongong, Australia. His experience at large-user facilities include positions at ANSTO (Australia), JAEA (Japan), DESY (Germany), ESRF (France), and ILL (France).

Education