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Dr. Thurston specializes in characterization of engineering materials and their modes of failure, with a particular focus in the fatigue and fracture of traditional and exotic metallic alloys. She is experienced in the design and implementation of mechanical testing and post-testing analyses on a range of materials including metals, glasses, composites, and polymers. 

Dr. Thurston has significant experience with a versatile array of fractographic and spectroscopic analysis techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fluorescence confocal microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXD), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).

During her tenure as a graduate student researcher at the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Dr. Thurston studied the mechanical and microstructural properties of unusual metallic alloy systems such as bulk metallic glasses and 'high-entropy' alloys. She is well versed in the development and execution of mechanical testing procedures and has extensive practice working with servo-hydraulic load frames. Her thesis examined the temperature dependence of the crack-propagation behavior in the 'high-entropy' alloy CrMnFeCoNi under high-cycle fatigue with a focus on the impact of cryogenic conditions.