Joseph Anderson

Joseph Anderson comes to Carthage following his Ph.D. studies in materials engineering at Purdue University, where he did research on the theory of deformation in metals. Before that, he obtained a B.S. in physics from Texas A&M University.

A materials science minor in his undergraduate studies sparked his interest in applied physics, especially the theoretical study of problems in materials science. Prof. Anderson’s thesis research involved evaluating these statistical effects.

“Metals deform by the motion of small ‘wrinkles’ called dislocations. There are so many dislocations in metals that we need a fluid-like theory of dislocation lines to keep track of them all. Such a fluid-like theory of lines would represent a physics-based model of metal deformation, something that has eluded the material’s physics for some time. These fluid-based models are strongly dependent on the statistical properties of the dislocation arrangements.”

Besides the field of his thesis research, Prof. Anderson also has more general interests in acoustic physics, statistical field theories, correlations in complex data, and the history and philosophy of science.