Haley Doude encourages all girls and women interested in pursuing science and technology careers “first, to believe in yourself, and second, to know that we are all rooting for you to succeed.”
The assistant research professor with Mississippi State’s Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems remembers having strong women role models. “I grew up watching my mom climb to the top position in her field,” Doude said. “My adviser, [former MSU mechanical engineering professor] Judy Schneider, was the only female faculty adviser in the department for a while, so I have had women to look to along the way.”
Doude has been making the most of opportunities at MSU since she first enrolled as an undergraduate student in 2002. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biological engineering and went on to earn a master’s and doctorate in mechanical engineering from MSU.
Doude also stresses the importance of staying open to new interests as they develop or change.
“I thought I wanted to go to medical school, but I did an internship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Dentistry in the Department of Biomedical Materials Science after my freshman year of undergrad. One of my duties was to take images of failed medical implants,” Doude said. “From then on, I knew that I was hooked on metals.”
After her internship, Doude continued her education and attained a fellowship with NASA to support her doctoral studies, investigating defect formation mechanisms in friction stir welds. Now, she studies steel and additive manufacturing, a process by which materials are used to build objects layer by layer.
“CAVS is a great mix of everything: research, academics, and sometimes a little industrial work thrown in,” Doude said. “I get to work on projects that are mostly scientific, but I also advise graduate students. I even get calls from some in industry needing help with materials problems. The mix of tasks keeps the work interesting and gives us great perspective on the impact of our research.”
As she continues her career at MSU, Doude is most excited about the projects that use metal for additive manufacturing.
“It’s great to see the wonder in people’s eyes when they hold a complicated metal part that has been built with our equipment,” Doude said. “Additive manufacturing provides so much flexibility to create designs or work with materials that were previously too difficult to manufacture, and now we are working to develop new alloys for additive manufacturing and working to better understand the process to further expand the possibilities.”