Tom Battle is a native of Dearborn Heights, Michigan.  He has engineering degrees in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering from The University of Michigan and the Colorado School of Mines.  He was also a post-doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Numerical Modeling and Process Analysis at Thames Polytechnic in the United Kingdom.

He spent eighteen years with the White Pigments and Mineral Products division of DuPont.  He was involved in both long-term research and support of operations at the titanium dioxide pigment plant in Edgemoor, Delaware.  His research focussed on technologies to remove iron and other impurities from titanium ore, ideally isolating them as by-products.  He also spent time providing direct support to plant operations and reducing Edgemoor’s energy consumption.  Later, he was involved in developing technologies to make titanium powder from high-purity TiCl4.

In 2008, Tom left DuPont to become a Senior Metallurgist at Midrex Technologies.  He became the resident expert on iron ore, ore quality testing, pelletization, and product applications.  For the last eight years, he has been an independent consultant involved in process development and optimization.