Rishi R. Pillai

Rishi Pillai is Group Leader of the Corrosion Science and Technology group at ORNL.  He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the Aachen Technical University (RWTH), Aachen, Germany in 2015. His previous experience includes working as a Research Associate in the prestigious High Temperature Corrosion and Corrosion Protection group at the Julich Research Center (Forschungszentrum Julich), Julich, Germany between 2013-2018 and has been conducting high temperature oxidation research since 2008. His main research areas are experimental and computational evaluation of the high temperature behavior of ferritic and austenitic steels, Ni-base alloys and high temperature corrosion/oxidation resistant coatings. The computational work includes development of coupled thermodynamic and kinetic modelling methodologies to allow a physics-based prediction of corrosion induced degradation and residual lifetime assessment during high temperature exposures. His expertise in computation assisted materials/coatings development has been substantiated through numerous peer reviewed publications and presentations at renowned conferences (e.g. Gordon Research Conference, International Conference on Metallic Coatings and Thin Films, Turbine Forum, Materials Science & Technology).