Haydn Wadley is a University Professor and the Edgar Starke Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Virginia. He is best known for his work on the design of lightweight microarchitected materials and their many applications in thermal management, high-intensity impulsive load mitigation, and the design of hypersonic leading edges.

His research interests in materials are broad. They span the study of radiation defects in refractory metals, the emission of elastic waves from rapidly propagating defects in metals, the use of sensors and models for intelligent control of materials processing, the atomistic modeling and design of new vapor-phase methods for making multilayered thin films and coatings, and the design of thermal and environmental protection coatings for increasing the efficiency of aero-gas turbine engines. Wadley is a fellow of the American Materials Society.