NWTRB Board Member
Updated October 28, 2004

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Dr. David J. Duquette was appointed to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board on June 26, 2002, by President George W. Bush.

Dr. Duquette is Department Head and a professor of materials science and engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York.  He brings to the Board expertise in the physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of metals and alloys, with special emphasis on environmental interactions.  His current research interests include the physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of metals and alloys, with specific reference to studies of cyclic deformation behavior as affected by environment and temperatures, basic corrosion studies, and stress-corrosion cracking.

Dr. Duquette is author or co-author of more than 200 scientific publications, primarily in environmental degradation of materials and electrochemical processing of semiconductor interconnects.  Among the awards that he has received are the Willis Rodney Whitney Award from the National Association of Corrosion Engineers in 1990 and the Humboldt Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 1983.  He has been elected an Honorary Member of Alpha Sigma Mu, the national mettallurgical honorary society, and has received an Outstanding Paper Award from Acta Metrallurgica. He is a Fellow of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers and of the American Society for Metals and is also a member of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society and of the Electrochemical Society.

Dr. Duquette spent more than 5 years as a member of a scientific review group that advised the Canadian government on disposal of high-level nuclear waste.  He also has been a member of a panel that advised the United States government on container design and materials selection for disposing of nuclear waste.

Dr. Duquette received a bachelor of science degree from the U. S. Coast Guard Academy in 1961.  From 1961 to 1965, he served as a commissioned officer in the U. S. Coast Guard.  From 1965 to 1968, he was a research assistant in the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  In 1968, he was awarded a Ph.D. in materials science by MIT.  From 1968 to 1970, he worked as a senior research associate in the Advanced Materials Research and Development Laboratory of Pratt and Whitney Aircraft.  Dr. Duquette joined the RPI faculty in 1970.

Dr. Duquette lives in Loudonville, New York.