Meet Dr. Cosima Boswell-Koller

Unfamiliar with the greater Detroit metropolitan area, Dr. Cosima Boswell-Koller was doubtful that she would find a job in the Ann Arbor area that combined her diverse educational background in the sciences with her many years of work experience with the Naval Air System Command at Patuxent River, Maryland. Her husband had been offered a job opportunity in the southeastern part of Michigan, but their move was contingent on finding a parallel career opportunity that met her needs.

In July 2018, Dr. Boswell-Koller identified an opportunity that seemed almost too good to be true. NCMS had advertised an opening for a Senior Project Manager within their CTMA Program that not only brought the industry together with the DOD but also with an emphasis on her professional strengths: coatings and corrosion.

With a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering and her years as a Materials Engineer/Science and Technology Team Lead with the Navy, Boswell-Koller was a perfect fit for managing CTMA initiatives. She has immersed herself in the world of maintenance and sustainment and has simultaneously taken on the role of Director of the Advanced Manufacturing, Materials, and Processes (AMMP) Program.

“As they say, Material Engineers’ work is a mile wide and an inch deep, because our knowledge base has to be very broad by design,” says Dr. Boswell-Koller. “At NAVAIR I worked on an array of incoming projects related to coatings, supply chain, sensors, alongside many others. This knowledgebase transitioned well to what I’m now doing at NCMS.” Dr. Boswell-Koller’s father was a helicopter pilot for the U.S. Army. It has always been a dream of hers to find ways to serve her country. It seems that she has found the perfect way to combine that desire with her academic background and skillset.

“I’m always open for a new challenge,” says Boswell-Koller. “The harder a problem seems, the more excited and motivated I get about finding a solution.”