Laura Homa, PhD, has been named the recipient of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing's (ASNT) Donald O. Thompson Research Recognition for Innovation Award, recognizing her contributions to innovative research in nondestructive testing (NDT) and nondestructive evaluation (NDE).
The award honors highly distinguished individual breakthroughs in NDT and NDE research achieved within the past five years, highlighting advancements that contribute to the continued evolution of inspection science and technology.
Dr. Homa is an applied mathematician and Senior Research Engineer at the University of Dayton Research Institute, where she leads the Modeling, Inversion, and Simulation Team within the Nondestructive Engineering Group. Her research focuses on advancing computational methods and data analysis techniques for nondestructive evaluation.
Her work specializes in adapting Bayesian inversion methods for NDE data. Among her research contributions are the development of novel regularization techniques to improve damage localization using electrical impedance tomography data and a data fusion method for segmenting microtexture regions by combining eddy current testing and scanning acoustic microscopy data.
From an NDT perspective, Dr. Homa has also served as principal investigator on research involving multiscale, mixed-modality microstructure characterization, supporting the development of advanced inspection and characterization methodologies. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Inverse Problems and NDT&E International.
In recognition of her research contributions, Dr. Homa received the 2023 Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Star Team Award and the 2022 Structural Materials Division JOM Best Paper Award. She also serves as Vice Program Chair for the ASNT Research Symposium.
The Donald O. Thompson Research Recognition for Innovation Award recognizes individuals whose recent research has introduced significant innovations in nondestructive testing and evaluation. Dr. Homa's work in Bayesian inversion, damage localization, and multimodal data fusion reflects ongoing efforts to advance computational approaches and analytical techniques within the NDT field.
Reference: https://www.asnt.org/
