Merlin Theodore
Biography
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Material Science Engineering Ph.D., Material Science & Engineering, Tuskegee University |
Merlin Theodore is a group leader for the Advanced Fibers Manufacturing Group in the Manufacturing Science Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
She guides material research at two Department of Energy National User Facilities, the Carbon Fiber Technology Facility and the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. In her role, she helps industry overcome the barriers associated with advanced fibers manufacturing. Her efforts allow technologies to advance from the research and development stage to validation and deployment.
ATheodore has more than 13 years of experience in carbon-based composites from the lab scale to commercialization. She has served in numerous leadership positions in government agencies, industry, and academia. Theodore is Head of Excellence at SGL Automotive Carbon Fiber LLC in Moses Lake, Washington, a research scientist and technical advisor for the Minority Leaders Program at Universal Technology Corporation co-located at Wright-Patterson Airforce Base in Dayton, Ohio, and a research faculty at Georgia Tech University.
Theodore has contributed to over 30 publications. She led the filter media initiative for a supply chain of N95 masks needed in the fight against COVID-19 to support the production of filter media for one million masks, three million surgical masks, and half a million N95 face masks per day, in addition to creating more than1,500 jobs in the state of Florida.
She is a member of the National Science Board’s class of 2022 - 2028.