John Berger

Professor and Dean of Energy and Materials

Headshot of John Berger outdoorsDr. Berger has a BS in Civil (Structural) Engineering and an MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Berger’s primary research interests are in the mechanical behavior and fracture of materials. 

Specifically, he has been engaged in research concerning dynamic crack growth and crack arrest in brittle and ductile materials, analytical and computational tools for analysis of anisotropic solids, elastic wave-based models for the nondestructive evaluation of cylindrically anisotropic solids, and numerical/experimental studies of deformation and fracture in functionally graded materials. Most recently, Dr. Berger has been involved with chemo-elastic mechanics in lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells, and transport membranes. Dr. Berger spent five years on the staff of the Fracture and Deformation Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has held faculty positions at Notre Dame and the University of Alaska, and has been at Colorado School of Mines since 1994. He served as Department Head for ME from 2017-2020, and is currently Dean of Energy and Materials Programs at Mines.

Contact

CoorsTek 210
303-273-3682
jberger@mines.edu
Homepage

Research Areas

  • Electrochemical stresses in lithium-ion batteries and transport membranes
  • Homogenization methods for heterogeneous materials
  • Fracture mechanics
  • Green’s functions and boundary element methods
  • Mechanics of anisotropic materials

Publications

View full list of publications in Google Scholar

  • Taghikhani K., Weddle P.J., Berger J.R., Kee R.J. “Modeling coupled chemo-mechanical behavior of randomly oriented NMC811 polycrystalline Li-ion battery cathodes,” Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 168(8):080511 (2021).
  • Taghikhani K.., Dubois A., Berger J.R., Ricote S., Zhu H., Kee R.J. “Modeling electro-chemo-mechanical behaviors within the dense BaZr0.8Y0.2O3−δ protonic-ceramic membrane in a long tubular electrochemical cell,” Membranes, 11(6):378 (2021).
  • Taghikhani K., Weddle P.J., Berger J.R., Kee R.J. “Chemo-mechanical behavior of highly anisotropic and isotropic polycrystalline graphite particles during lithium intercalation,” Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 167(11):110554 (2020).
  • Dubois A., Taghikhani K., Berger J.R., Zhu H., O’Hayre R.P., Braun R.J., Kee R.J., Ricote S. “Chemo-thermo-mechanical coupling in protonic ceramic fuel cells from fabrication to operation,” Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 166(13):F1007 (2019).
  • Kelly S.T., Ricote S., Weddle P., Dubois A., Kee B., Harris W., Berger J., Kee R.J. “Nondestructive 3D nanoscale X-ray imaging of solid oxide fuel cells in the laboratory,” Microscopy and Microanalysis, 25(S2):382–383 (2019).
  • Ricote S., Dubois A., Taghikhani K., Braun R.J., Berger J., Kee R.J. “Expansion in proton-conducting ceramic based devices,” ECS Meeting Abstracts, MA2018-02:1672 (2018).
  • Malavé V., Killgore J.P., Garboczi E.J., Berger J.R. “Decoupling the effects of surface topography and material heterogeneity on indentation modulus: a simple numerical linear-elastic model,” International Journal of Solids and Structures, 124:235–243 (2017).
  • Geer S., Berger J.R., Parnell W.J., Mustoe G.G.W. “A comparison of discrete element and micromechanical methods for determining the effective elastic properties of geomaterials,” Computers and Geotechnics, 87:1–9 (2017).
  • Euser B., Zhu H., Berger J.R., Lewinsohn C.A. Kee R.J. “Electrochemical-mechanical coupling in composite planar structures that integrate flow channels and ion-conducting membranes,” Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 164(7):F732 (2017).
  • Euser B., Berger J.R., Zhu H., Kee R.J. “Chemically induced stress in tubular mixed ionic-electronic conducting (MIEC) ceramic membranes,” Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 163(10):F1294 (2016).
  • Euser B., Zhu H., Berger J., Kee R.J. “Modeling the chemically induced stress in Lscf oxygen-separation membranes,” ECS Meeting Abstracts, MA2016-01:1484 (2016).
  • Euser B., Berger J.R., Zhu H., Kee R.J. “Defect-transport-induced stress in mixed ionic-electronic conducting (MIEC) ceramic membranes,” Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 163(3):F264 (2016)

View full list of publications in Google Scholar

Recent Courses

  • Advanced Engineering Analysis
  • Boundary Element Methods
  • Fracture and Fatigue
  • Advanced Mechanics of Materials