Craig Brice, PhD, PE
- cbrice@technoirva.com
- Feb 27
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 6
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTISE
Additive Manufacturing: (AM) Metals, Ceramics, Polymers & More
Process Feedback Control of AM Systems
Alloy Design & Property Development
Qualification and Certification of AM Processes
AM Education
AM Workforce Development
LANGUAGE FLUENCY
English
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS, LICENSES, AND SKILLS
Professional Engineer (PE)
CURRICULUM VITAE
Dr. Craig Brice graduated with a BS in Metallurgical Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology, an MS in Materials Science and Engineering form Ohio State University, and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Canterbury.
Currently, Dr. Brice is a Professor of Practice in Mechanical Engineering at Colorado School of Mines. There, he serves as director of the Additive Manufacturing Program, which focuses on undergraduate and graduate education in additive manufacturing and other advanced manufacturing techniques. He is also involved in additive manufacturing research with the Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT) at Mines and serves as the director for the ADAPT consortium.
Dr. Brice has been working in additive manufacturing for over 20 years, beginning with the first commercially available AM system sold by Optomec in 1998. He has spent his entire professional career working in additive manufacturing, with time spent at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Advanced Development Programs (Skunk Works), Lockheed Martin Space Advanced Technology Center and NASA Langley Research Center. His work over the years has focused on alloy development, process monitoring and feedback control systems, and qualification/certification.
He has served as lead/co-lead on DoD collaborative projects worth over $20M, including an AM qualification program for the F-35. Dr. Brice has contributed to over two dozen technical journal publications and has 13 issued patents.
EDUCATION
Missouri University of Science & Technology – BS, Metallurgical Engineering
Ohio State University – MS, Materials Science and Engineering
University of Canterbury – PhD, Mechanical Engineering
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Brice has been working in additive manufacturing (AM) for over 25 years, beginning with the first commercially available metal AM system sold by Optomec in 1998. Dr Brice started his career at Lockheed Martin (LM) Aeronautics Company in Fort Worth, Texas, as part of the Advanced Development Programs team—the legacy “Skunkworks” program.
At LM Aero, he led the metallic materials research and development activities within the Materials and Manufacturing Exploration Laboratory. This involved managing and participating in multiple concurrent projects, both internally and externally funded, with a total annual budget between $500,000 and $2.5M. In this endeavor, he continually demonstrated success at securing external competitive funding streams to leverage existing work. This entailed utilizing novel advanced manufacturing techniques to create unique alloy configurations with targeted properties. These efforts resulted in multiple patented material compositions with applications including high-temperature structure, lightweight armor and wear-resistant surfaces.
Additional activities required thorough microstructural analysis and characterization of novel materials and structures, where he developed testing procedures for validation of experimental materials. This work involved transitioning experimental materials and processes into manufacturable parts and components. Specifically, Dr. Brice developed the business case justification for using advanced additive manufacturing processes for metallic materials by applying various fabrication techniques, validating the material characteristics and weighing economic factors. These efforts led to him becoming the technical team leader for the electron beam additive manufacturing implementation project for the F-35 Program. As part of this effort, Dr. Brice developed the technical transition plan for maturing the process and creating the supplier base. This involved leading closed-loop process control development activities—in close collaboration with vendors—prior to the formal qualification and certification trials.
In 2010, Dr. Brice joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, as a Senior Materials Research Engineer. He was responsible for furthering the development of additive manufacturing materials and processes for aerospace structural applications. He led a multidisciplinary team in conducting research and development of structurally optimized gradient alloy components fabricated using additive manufacturing. This required the development of novel alloy compositions specifically for additive manufacturing processes that result in optimized performance.
Essential to this work was the understanding of residual stress and distortion in additively manufactured structures using high-energy neutron/x-ray beam sources. To refine and control AM fabrication processes, Dr. Brice worked to establish process-microstructure-property relationships in a variety of alloys for a variety of additive manufacturing processes. To this end, Dr. Brice led the development of qualification and certification methodologies for additively manufactured metallic structures. Other responsibilities included serving as the technical adviser on numerous external research activities with a variety of small businesses and academic partners. At NASA, Dr. Brice was central to organizing and leading a government interagency working group for additive manufacturing. This group worked to develop cross-collaboration in R&D activities and helped to coordinate accelerated implementation of AM parts. While at NASA, he also served as an additive manufacturing subject matter expert adviser to a variety of national manufacturing initiatives, including America Makes.
In 2015, Dr. Brice returned to Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, where he was a Senior Staff Research Scientist at its Advanced Technology Center. Here, he led the development of novel materials and manufacturing processes for spaceflight applications. This involved assisting with qualification and certification for new materials and structural components, and leading multiple external cooperative research programs with international partnerships. Dr. Brice had a key advocacy role inside LM Space for providing technical guidance to company leadership in advanced manufacturing, by developing business case justifications for resource investments and by creating implementation paths for advanced technology transition.
Since 2018, Dr. Brice has been a Professor of Practice in Mechanical Engineering at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, where he is currently the director of the additive manufacturing interdisciplinary graduate program and serves on the board of directors of the Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT). As a Professor of Practice, he led the establishment of a new graduate degree program in additive manufacturing along with creation of a teaching laboratory for hands-on instruction in the field of additive manufacturing.
His work also involves supporting industrial engagement within the Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT) Consortium. Dr Brice continues to conduct research into additive manufacturing techniques, process control methods and alloy development strategies. These high-profile activities led the capture and execution of research projects in excess of $20M, which include work in process control and optimization, qualification and certification, and education and workforce development in advanced manufacturing.
Dr Brice’s additional activities and accolades include holding Honorary Adjunct Professor positions at two Australian universities: the Centre for Additive Manufacturing at RMIT University and the Monash Center for Additive Manufacturing, both in Melbourne, Victoria.
Dr. Brice is the owner and president of Summit Manufacturing Consultants, LLC, where he consults as a subject matter expert in the field of metal additive manufacturing for clients across the aerospace, mining, military vehicles, and renewable energy. He has contributed to more than 50 technical journal publications and conference proceedings, and he has 13 issued patents.
