Dr. Jennifer L. Bennett Assistant Professor Associate Director - Center of Applied Engineering Civil and Mechanical Engineering Center for Applied Engineering jennifer.bennett [at] westpoint.edu About Education Research & Publications Dr. Jennifer Bennett’s research resides at the intersection of mechanics, materials science, manufacturing, and machine design, where she focuses on advancing materials and manufacturing for defense applications, particularly for ballistic and hypersonic uses. She holds a master’s in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University, where her research centered on tailoring the microstructure of additively manufactured materials.Prior to joining the West Point team, Dr. Bennett spent seven years as an Advanced Solutions Engineer at DMG MORI, developing turn-key additive and subtractive machine tool solutions for industry leaders such as SpaceX, Toyota, and Boeing. At the United States Military Academy, she leads the AMBITION Laboratory, which focuses on characterizing and optimizing the behavior of additively manufactured materials at variable strain rates.Dr. Bennett has been recognized as one of SME’s 30 Under 30 Manufacturing Innovators and holds two patents in her field. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes developing high-order thinkers through project-based learning and hands-on experiences. She is deeply committed to mentorship and increasing participation in STEM fields.Dr. Bennett is married to Maj David Simeroth, her classmate from the United States Air Force Academy, and they are the proud parents of four children. Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering - Northwestern UniversityM.Eng. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering - Illinois Institute of TechnologyB.S. in Mechanical Engineering - Illinois Institute of Technology Research Interests Additive manufacturing, Tailored microstructure, Gradient materials, Hybrid manufacturing Current Research Additive manufacturing for defense applications, Ballistic materials, Hypersonic materials, Microstructure optimization Selected Publications Xie X.*, Bennett J.*, Saha S.*, Lu Y., Cao J., Liu W. K. & Gan Z. (2021) “Mechanistic data-driven prediction of as-built mechanical properties in metal additive manufacturing” npj Computational Materials, vol. 7, no. 86. Bennett J., Glerum J., & Cao J. (2021) “Relating additively manufactured part tensile properties to thermal metrics” CIRP Annals, vol. 70 (1). Bennett J., Garcia D., Kendrick M., Hartman T., Hyatt G., Ehmann K., You F. & Cao J. (2019) “Repairing automotive dies with directed energy deposition: industrial application and life cycle analysis” Journal of Manufacturing Science & Engineering, vol. 141, no. 2.