Tanner Kirk

Papers

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About

Tanner Kirk is a leading researcher at the intersection of additive manufacturing and materials science, with a primary focus on functionally graded materials (FGMs). His most-cited work, "Functionally Graded Materials through robotics-inspired path planning" (2019, 64 citations), addresses a critical challenge in alloy fabrication: the formation of brittle phases that compromise material integrity during compositional grading. Kirk’s innovative approach adapts robotics path-planning algorithms to control deposition strategies, enabling more reliable transitions between dissimilar alloys. This work bridges computational design and physical manufacturing, offering a pathway to defect-free FGMs for aerospace and biomedical applications. Beyond this flagship study, Kirk has advanced the use of CALPHAD-based thermodynamic tools to predict phase stability in graded structures, helping researchers avoid problematic compositions before fabrication. His contributions are particularly impactful for the additive manufacturing community, where his methods reduce experimental trial-and-error. By integrating robotics, thermodynamics, and materials processing, Kirk has established himself as a key figure in the next generation of digital manufacturing, providing practical solutions for creating high-integrity, compositionally complex components.