Positions:

Washington State University
Professor and Director, School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Lindholm, Herman & Brita Endowed Chair in Materials Engineering

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Joint Appointee, Reactor Materials Group

Email:
john.mccloy@wsu.edu

Education:

• Ph.D. in Material Science & Engineering, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Arizona, 2008
• M.S. in Material Science & Engineering, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Arizona, 2007
• M.A. in Cultural Anthropology, School of Anthropology, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, May 2004
• B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, School of Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996

Research Expertise:

Diverse technical experience, analytical capability, and topical interest. Special interest in solid state chemistry/physics and spectroscopy of inorganic materials. Materials science focus in ceramics and glasses, particularly for nuclear applications. Deep interdisciplinary interest in radioactive waste management, particularly vitreous waste forms

Brief Biography

Dr. John S. McCloy is Professor and Director of the School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering and Lindholm Endowed Chair in Materials Engineering at Washington State University (WSU) and a joint appointee at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). His professional career includes academia (WSU, 12 y), national laboratory (PNNL, 5 y), and industry (Raytheon, etc., 10 y). At WSU, he leads the Nuclear, Optical, Magnetic, & Electronic (NOME) Materials Lab and the Crystals and SemiConductors (CASC) group, both within the Institute of Materials Research (IMR). These researchers develop materials solutions for energy, environment, and security applications. Over his career, he has worked on diverse engineering problems, including cryogenics, composite structures, telescopes, optical ceramics, magnetic nanoparticles, ancient materials technologies, nuclear fuels, single crystal growth, and glass development for optics and immobilization of radioactive waste. He holds degrees in Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS) and the University of Arizona (MS, PhD). He is co-author of over 300 journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, public reports, and patents. He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, a Fellow of SPIE, an elected member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences, and a Fulbright Scholar.

Select Publications:

• Gregg, D.J., J.S. McCloy, J.D. Vienna, A.M. Macfarlane, W.J. Weber, and G.R. Lumpkin, “Glass and ceramic nuclear waste forms: The scientific battle,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 81(1), 3-16 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2024.2441044
  
• John S. McCloy, Brian J. Riley, M. C. Dixon Wilkins, Jonathan Evarts, John Bussey, John Vienna, Paul A. Bingham, Dan Gregg, Michael Ojovan, Sophie Schuller, Kazuyoshi Uruga, Damien Perret, Elise Regnier, Isabelle Giboire, Wooyong Um, Kai Xu, Ashutosh Goel, Albert Kruger, “International Perspectives on Glass Waste Form Development for Low-Level and Intermediate-Level Radioactive Waste,” Materials Today, 80, 594-618 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2024.08.025
  
• Anjali Yadav, Saehwa Chong, Brian J. Riley, John S. McCloy, Ashutosh Goel “Iodine capture by Ag-loaded solid sorbents followed by Ag recycling and iodine immobilization: An end-to-end process,” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 62(8), 3635-3646 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.2c04357
  
• John McCloy & Sophie Schuller, “Vitrification of wastes: from unwanted to controlled crystallization, a review,” Comptes Rendus Géoscience, 354(S1), 121-160 (2022). https://doi.org/10.5802/crgeos.111
  
• J. S. McCloy, J. Marcial, J.S. Clarke, M. Ahmadzadeh, J.A. Wolff, E.P. Vicenzi, D.L. Bollinger, E. Ogenhall, M. Englund, C.I. Pearce, R. Sjöblom, and A.A. Kruger, “Reproduction of melting behavior for vitrified hillforts based on amphibolite, granite, and basalt lithologies,” Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1272 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80485-w
  
• Irmak Sargin, Charmayne Lonergan, John Vienna, John McCloy, Scott Beckman, “A Data-driven Approach for Predicting Nepheline Crystallization in High-Level Waste Glasses,” Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 103(9), 4913-4924 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1111/jace.17122
  
• Ashutosh Goel, John S. McCloy, Richard Pokorny, Albert A. Kruger, “Challenges with Vitrification of Hanford High-Level Waste (HLW) to Borosilicate Glass – An overview” Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids: X 4, 100033 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nocx.2019.100033
  
• Saehwa Chong, Jacob Peterson, Brian Riley, Diana Tabada, Donald Wall, Claire L. Corkhill, John McCloy, “Glass-bonded iodosodalite waste form for immobilization of I-129,” Journal of Nuclear Materials, 504, 109-121 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.03.033
  
• Jamie Weaver, Chuck Soderquist, Nancy Washton, Andrew S. Lipton, Paul Gassman, Wayne Lukens, Albert A. Kruger, Nathalie Wall, and John S. McCloy, “Chemical Trends in Solid Alkali Pertechnetates,” Inorganic Chemistry, 56(5), 2533-2544 (2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b02694
  
• B. Riley, J. Vienna, D. Strachan, J. McCloy, J. Jerden Jr., “Materials and Processes for the Effective Capture and Immobilization of Radioiodine:  a Review,”  Journal of Nuclear Materials, 470, 307-326 (2016).  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2015.11.038.

Additional Information:

Directory

• Fellow of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, 2025
• Elected member of Washington State Academy of Sciences (WSAS), 2024
• Fulbright Scholar, US Department of State and US-UK Commission, 2019
• Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, 2018