Meredith A. Aronson

Ph.D. 1993, University of Arizona
Adjunct Professor
The University of Arizona
Materials Science and Engineering
Harshbarger Bldg. Room 304C
(520) 626-3774
e-mail: maronson@arizona.edu

Teaching Interests

• Engineering 498A: Senior Capstone Design

Research Interests

My work addresses material technologies as systems of activities involved in the selection, processing and use of materials. I am particularly interested in architectural material technologies for built environments. Currently, my work encompasses biomimetic materials (insect-built composites), prehistoric and historic earthen materials and coatings, and acoustic bandgap materials.

Examination of the ecology of activities involved in insects as builders and a careful assessment of the materials properties and performance involved in those sequences of activities will provide a framework for considering low-energy, sustainable production of biomimetic architectural materials. Insect-built structures such as termite mounds, wasps nests, and bee hives reflect careful materials selection, but also transformation of raw materials into structural composites, using materials that are present in the local eco-system in ways that respond to the external environmental conditions. They do this without external heat or power, using metabolic processes. This work becomes interesting in developing a model of regional materials use for construction, as these insects provide powerful new ways to conceive of flexible selection and processing of materials for built environments.

Additionally, I am examining materials used historically for roof coatings, looking backwards in time to understand materials and processes that may provide alternative weatherproofing solutions. Processes of renewal and repair, prevalent in the natural world, are likewise more common with traditional coatings. In traditional structures in Mexico, annual coating of roofs with layers of alum and soap provide weatherproofing in a system not dissimilar to modern technologies used in paper sizing.

In collaboration with Pierre Deymier (MSE) and Dale Clifford (Architecture), we are engaged in a study of 3 dimensional acoustic bandgap materials, or periodic composite materials that scatter waves in the acoustic range, creating gaps in transmission. Applications of interest are in noise barriers along highways. Using rapid prototyping, we are experimenting with 3-dimensional geometries that create both scattering performance and interesting aesthetic effects.

Publications

• Aronson, M., D. Bell, and D. Vermeer, "Process as Technology: Fashioning a Foundation for Studying Practice in Technology-Creating Organization. To appear in an edited volume, M.C. Schiffer, ed. University of New Mexico Press. 1998
• Expertise in Product Development: A Research Report and Plan for the Future. Xerox internal report. 1998.
• M. Aronson, "Technological change: Ceramic mortuary technology in the Valley of Atemajac from the Late Formative to the Classic Period". Ancient Mesoamerica. 1996.
• Aronson, M. and E. Vinkhuyzen, "Learning to Oursource: Help-desk Work at IT".Project report on file at the Institute for Research on Learning, Menlo Park, CA, 1996.
• Aronson, M., L.Bishop, M. Cefkin, B. Jordan, N. Lawrence, J. Oesterle, C. Preston, and C. Sullivan, "Reflections on a Journey of Transformation: Learning, Growth, and Change at Xerox Business Services. Project report on file at the Institute for Research on Learning, Menlo Park, CA, 1995.
• Aronson, M., J. Skibo, and M. Stark, "Production and Use Technologies in Kalinga Pottery". In Kalinga Ethnoarchaelogy. edited by W. Longacre and J. Skibo, 83-112, Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Press. 1994.
• Technological Change: West Mexican Mortuary Ceramics.Ph.D. dissertation. University of Arizona, Tucson, 1993.
• Aronson, M. and Fournier, P., "Model for Technological Innovation: an Ethnoarchaeological Project in Pino Suarez, Mexico. In Ceramics and Civilization Vol. V1. edited by W.D. Kingery, 33-74, Columbus, OH: American Ceramic Society. 1992.
• Use Technologies: An Ethnoarchaeologicval Study of Kalinga Pottery. In Proceedings of the 1990 MRS Symposium on Materials Issues in Art and Archeology, ed. P. Vandiver, J. Druzik, and G. Wheeler. Pittsburgh: Materials Research Society. 1990
• Aronson, M. and W.D. Kingery, "Patination of Ceramic Objects, Modern and Prehistoric: A Case from West Mexico. In Proceedings of the 1990 MRS Symposium on Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology, ed. P. Vandiver, J. Druzik and G. Wheeler, 571-589. Pittsburgh: Materials Research Society. 1990.
• Abraham, M.A., M.A. Aronson, and L.A. Boatner, "EPR Observations of Trivalent Titanium in Orthophospate Single Crystals. J. Chem. Phys.85(1):1-6, 1986
• IDEA: is a Research group at Xerox PARC [Meredith Aronson, David Bell, Tao Liang, and Dan Vermeer].