About me
Dr. Olivia McNair is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor at The University of Southern Mississippi School of Polymer Science and Engineering and has served in this capacity for approximately one year. Dr. McNair has a background in education, industrial R&D and program management prior to her academic pursuits. Her industry experience is in coatings and composites with efforts at PPG Industries at the Coatings Innovation Center (CIC) in Allison Park, PA and The Boeing Company as a Manufacturing and Production Engineer within the Next Generation Composites research group. She also served as a research scientists and program manager for multiple Defense funded program initiatives for a total of 6 years, with roles and responsibilities to The U.S. Army (NATICK), The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), and The Air Force Research Lab (AFRL). She also served as program manager and graduate student mentor for a recent NASA University Leadership Initiative (NASA ULI) program entitled “Atoms to Aircraft to Spacecraft: Synthetic Design Synthesis of Thermoplastic UD Tape Based, Fastener-free Assemblies for Urban Air Mobility Vehicles”. Through this project a multifaceted research approach, spanning from computational molecular design to high-rate manufacturing, was applied to improve and understand high-rate processes. Dr. McNair is also a member and CEO of Triumph Polymers and Composites, LLC. Triumph Polymers and Composites, LLC is a Mississippi MURA company specializing in composite polymer matrix design and fiber reinforced polymer matrix precursors and composites.
