Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
MPC DIRECTOR Eagar Succeeds Latanision Dr. Thomas W. Eagar, the Richard P. Simmons Professor of Metallurgy, has been named director of the School of Engineering's Materials Processing Center (MPC). Professor Eagar, an internationally recognized expert in the physics and chemistry of welding and other metal-joining processes, succeeds Professor Ronald M. Latanision, director of the center since December 1984. Professor Latanision returns to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering to pursue his research and teaching as well as his interests in K-12 education and public service. Professor Eagar's appointment was announced by Dean Joel Moses of the School of Engineering. "Professor Eagar has shown great intellectual strengths in his welding research and strong administrative abilities when he was acting head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. I have great confidence in his ability to lead the MPC in the coming years," Dean Moses said. The 11-year-old center is both the interdepartmental focus for materials processing research at MIT and an international forum for the transfer of scientific information and technology about materials processing technologies. The center's current annual research budget is about $8 million. About 30 percent of its support is from the federal government and about 70 percent comes from industry. Professor Eagar, an MIT faculty member since 1976, received the SB (1972) and the ScD (1975) from MIT. He is widely recognized for his ability to bring quantitative understanding to a largely empirical field. His recent research has involved studies of process control, design for manufacturability, rapid prototyping and project management. He is also active in MIT's Leaders for Manufacturing Program and has been the liaison professor with Motorola. In addition, with other engineers from MIT, Stanford and Purdue and business faculty from Harvard and Stanford, he is participating in a Manufacturing Vision Study Group. The group is evaluating the key features of a successful manufacturing company of the future.