Alan Thrift graduated, Summa Cum Laude from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Mathematics. He was named “Most Outstanding Mechanical Engineering Senior” in the William States Lee College of Engineering at UNCC for the 2004-2005 academic year and was selected by the Charlotte Observer out of the entire graduating year as one of the University’s “Most Interesting Students” to write a graduation article about his four years at the University, His previous work experience includes a 2004 summer undergraduate research fellowship as part of the Material Science and Engineering Laboratory at the NIST Center for Neutron Research. Here Alan designed and constructed a fully automated 15 ton capacity low profile uni-axial load frame which has been instrumental in furthering research on material deformation under tensile and compressive loads.

While enrolled at UNCC Alan also worked as an Instructor for Solid Mechanics and Physics II. Alan is spending his summer as an intern at Belford Research Inc. He is using fundamental concepts to model, design and biuld strain jigs to mechanically strain integrated circuit membranes. He will be attending graduate school at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), where he has been granted a Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA).