Cahill is a Willett Professor of Engineering and was the department head of materials science and engineering from 2010-18. He is an expert on the concept of minimum thermal conductivity and transient optical measurement techniques. His research program focuses on developing a microscopic understanding of thermal transport at the nanoscale; the discovery of materials with enhanced thermal function; the interactions between phonons, electrons, photons and spin; and advancing fundamental understanding of interfaces between materials and water. Cahill is an American Physical Society fellow and received the 2018 Innovation in Materials Characterization Award of the Materials Research Society.
About the election David Cahill commented, “I am honored to be selected as a fellow of the AAAS and grateful that our work on nanoscale thermal transport has received this recognition by the scientific community.”