Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, 2019
  • B.S., Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, 2014
Professional Honors
  • National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2015
Professional Affiliations
  • ASM International (member)
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science (member)

Dr. Slone specializes in solving complex problems related to materials science, metallurgy, fracture/fractography, failure analysis, and failure prevention. As a Licensed Professional Metallurgical Engineer, he assists clients with components and processes across a wide range of industries including power and utilities, oil and gas, industrial machinery and equipment, building and construction, and consumer products, among others.

While at Exponent, Dr. Slone has worked on many projects ranging from direct-cause failure analyses of single components to large, multidisciplinary investigations of integrated systems. He has leveraged his expertise to help clients understand or solve problems related to material and manufacturing issues, time-dependent material damage or degradation (including fatigue, corrosion, environmentally assisted cracking, and hydrogen embrittlement), or component overload. A common theme throughout his work is understanding the interplay between engineering design, manufacturing, metallurgical fundamentals, and component/system operating environments. Dr. Slone has extensive experience with optical and scanning electron microscopy, fractography, metallurgical and chemical analyses, computed tomography (CT), and mechanical testing techniques across a wide range of temperatures and loading modalities.

Dr. Slone has also supported and managed interdisciplinary project teams in many domestic litigation and international arbitration cases.

Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Slone was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at The Ohio State University. His doctoral thesis focused on the influence of composition and processing on the mechanical response of high entropy alloys. This work included computationally-screened alloy design via calculation of phase diagram (CALPHAD) techniques; thermo-mechanical processing of new alloys; mechanical assessment, including hardness measurement, rate-controlled tensile testing, and high-temperature creep testing; and analysis with electron-microscopy-based techniques such as energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), and electron channeling contrast imaging (ECCI).

In addition to his industry and research experience, Dr. Slone has also served as a teaching assistant for undergraduate and graduate materials science courses and led a practical laboratory course in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) methods. .