After earning an Associate of Science degree from American River College, Dr. Sherburne earned his bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Mineral Engineering at UC Berkeley. Dr. Sherburne went on to obtain his Master of Science and his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from UC Berkeley. His work focused on computational approaches to understanding the limits of strengths of materials. After finishing his PhD he took a position at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in the Materials Science and Engineering department, where his research continued to focused on metals. He also founded a makerspace with faculty in the College of Business to study the cross-cutting nature of additive manufacturing and teach the fundamentals of the design process as well as to give students a place to pursue their personal interests. In addition, he was a faculty mentor for the Hoeft Technology & Management program. On returning to UC Berkeley he was the Program Director for the Singapore-Berkeley Research Institute for Sustainable Energy (SinBeRISE) and is the Director of International programs for the Materials Science and Engineering department. His research focuses on applying computational techniques to the discovery, design and development of materials for a sustainable world: solar energy, catalytic reaction and CO2 reduction, and water for example.
