Materials scientist Malik Blackman is expanding the boundaries of additive manufacturing while building a stronger engineering community at Georgia Tech. 

When he started his Ph.D. at Georgia Tech, Malik Blackman didn’t expect creativity to become just as central to his experience as solving complex engineering problems.

Yet he has found harmony between his scientific work and his artistic endeavors that benefits both, making him a better researcher and a better creator.

One of those artist outlets is the alto saxophone, an instrument Blackman has been playing since elementary school. He focuses on blending contemporary sounds and traditional jazz, and performs regularly across Atlanta with other local musicians and DJs.

Playing music is more than a hobby, Blackman said; it’s a direct window into how he thinks, works, and leads.

“I would encourage everyone to pick their instrument back up, the one they dropped after high school,” he said. “Music teaches you discipline, how to listen, how to improvise — and that carries over into research and collaboration.”

Blackman also creates — and exhibits — visual art. He specializes in geometric illusion, using straight lines to create the impression of depth, motion, and curves. His artwork has been sold to collectors— one piece even inspired a tattoo.
Here, too, he fuses mathematical precision and creativity.

“I like bringing that geometric, almost engineering, mindset into my pieces— straight lines that look like curves, stillness that looks like motion. It’s how I tell a unique story,” Blackman said. “You don’t see a lot of Ph.D. students with artwork in galleries, but I wanted to show that engineering isn’t separate from creativity; they’re part of each other.”

When he’s not in the lab himself or creating music and art, Blackman aims to show that same creativity to the generation coming after him. He spends time mentoring Atlanta-area high school students in research, coaching them through writing papers for publication in academic journals and working with them to prepare for the SAT.

Blackman said mentoring is a way to give back and help younger students access opportunities like those that shaped him.
“I have to recognize my impact,” he said. “This is why I’m doing the Ph.D. — not just for myself, but for the community I can affect because of it.”

Innovation in Materials Processing

Blackman is in his fifth year of that Ph.D., studying additive manufacturing in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. His research aims to better understand the behavior of powder materials during 3D printing.

Blackman concentrates on a 3D printing process that uses a laser to fuse powder layer by layer to create solid products. With a technique called fast scanning calorimetry (FSC), he can heat particles thousands of degrees per second and analyze their behavior as they’re exposed to those high temperatures.

“It basically mimics the heating and cooling environment of laser powder fusion,” Blackman said.

Collaborating with the Savannah River National Laboratory, Blackman has shown thermoset powder materials can undergo partial cross-linking when heated quickly, a process that’s vital for proper layer bonding. Now he’s expanding his research to understand how the powder material ages and its recyclability.

“If you make a print, and then you break down that material to recycle it back into the printing process, how effective is that new material? We're looking at situations like that and how that can play a role in manufacturing systems,” he said.

For all the ways Blackman creates — in the lab, as a mentor, through music or art — his motivation remains deeply personal.
“I’m just praying that the work that I’m doing is coming through,” he said. “I’m always worried about, am I doing enough? That’s what pushes me to keep doing so much.”

Written by Dhanesh Amin