In June we awarded 34 bachelors degrees, 14 masters and 14 doctorates. Our program of offering fellowships to a large percentage of domestic applicants continues to provide us with an outstanding graduate student body; 71% of our entering graduate student class are domestic.
In January, Professor Merton C. Flemings, who served so ably as Department Head for more than 12 years, stepped down to continue his teaching and research activities. He was succeeded by Professor Thomas W. Eagar. During Professor Flemings' tenure the department increased its breadth, evolving from a department concerned primarily with metals and ceramics, to one which encompasses all the materials classes, including electronic materials and polymers. The department and the Institute will forever be indebted to Professor Flemings for his leadership, vision, guidance and efforts in maintaining and increasing the strength of the Department.
Our faculty members continue to occupy leadership positions both within and outside MIT. Within MIT, Professor Vander Sande is Acting Dean of Engineering. Professor Kimerling serves as Director of the Materials Processing Center, Professor Hobbs has served this past year as Associate Chairman of the Faculty. Professor Thomas is in a newly established position as Associate Department Head, as well as continuing to serve as Director of PPST (Program in Polymer Science and Technology), Professor Rose continues as Director of the Concourse Program, and Professor Latanision continues as Chairman of the MIT Council on Primary and Secondary Education. Professor Kimerling completed his year as President of TMS (The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society) this past February, and Professor Carl Thompson is 1st Vice President of MRS (Materials Research Society) during 1995.
Considerable progress has been made during the past year in a number of ongoing departmental initiatives. First, two volumes of the undergraduate textbook series have been published. We expect several more textbooks to be completed during the next one to two years. Our new Undergraduate Materials Processing Laboratory continues to do well and receive favorable comments from the students. The computer education initiative has been strengthened by the addition of a subject on computational materials science developed by Professor Gerbrand Ceder, and the recently initiated Materials Processing and Manufacturing Institute has enrolled its first five students and shows signs of continued growth during the next year.
As noted above, the first two volumes in the MIT Series in Materials Science and Engineering, published by John Wiley & Sons, were completed this past year by David V. Ragone. These are Volumes 1 and 2, Thermodynamics of Materials. These textbooks provide the foundation for subjects 3.00, Thermodynamics of Materials, and 3.01, Physical Chemistry of Materials, which are two core, sophomore introductory subjects in the Department. The text, Physical Ceramics by Professor Yet-Ming Chiang with co-author Dunbar B. Birnie and W. David Kingery of the University of Arizona, will be printed shortly. Professors Allen and Thomas have nearly completed their text on structure, and Professor Szekely has made significant progress on his text on transport phenomena. In addition, Professor David Roylance is completing a text on mechanical behavior.
At the graduate level, Professor Balluffi has completed and sent to press his major work on grain boundaries, which we expect to become a standard in the field for many years to come. Professor Chiang is also working on a new ceramics text. This new substantial activity of authoring core materials science texts has caused a number of other faculty to begin planning their own new textbooks.
Our undergraduate enrollment remains at historically high levels. Essential to maintaining our undergraduate body are extensive recruiting efforts, including a 3-day Open House, our annual John Wulff Lecture, direct mailings to the freshman class, Freshman Advisor Seminars, and IAP Activities. Our III-B CO-OP Program continues to attract the majority of the undergraduate students in our department. Through this program we have strengthened our interactions with 35 companies and government laboratories while providing summer experiences for our undergraduates which are relevant to their educational development. Placement of students during the summer of 1995 was difficult, but nearly all eventually found suitable positions. Our undergraduate body currently comprises 43% women, 14% underrepresented minorities, and 3% foreign students. We awarded 34 bachelors degrees in 1995.
The Student Undergraduate Materials Society (SUMS) continued to be a source of strength for the undergraduate program. SUMS assisted in end-of-term subject evaluations, planned socials, and assisted in tutoring of fellow students. Officers of the society during the fall semester were: Erin Lavik (President), John Guzek, (Vice President), and Elizabeth K. Lai (Secretary and Treasurer). New officers elected in spring 1995 are: Ben Hellweg (President), David L. Ngau (Vice President), William P. Chernicoff (Secretary) and Nancy K. Enright (Treasurer).
Approximately 23% of our graduate students are women and 3.5% are underrepresented minorities. The distribution of our students among our six graduate degree programs and their affiliates is little changed from last year. As of February 1995 it was:
Percent of Total
Degree Program Graduate Students
Ceramics 14%
Electronic Materials 24%
Materials Engineering 25%
Materials Science 9%
Metallurgy 11%
Polymers 17%
Three of our students in Materials Engineering were enrolled in the Technology and Policy Program, and two were enrolled in the Leaders for Manufacturing Program. Fifteen of our Polymer students were enrolled in the Program for Polymer Science and Technology. We anticipate for the fall of 1995 a total graduate class of about 172. The program we adopted four years ago of offering one-term fellowships to a large percent of domestic applicants, has been successful. We estimate we will register an incoming class of 38 for the coming fall, over seventy percent of which will be domestic.
Nearly all undesignated gifts to the department are currently being used to fund endowed fellowships (including the Nicholas J. Grant Fellowship, the John F. Elliott Fellowship, the Ronald A. Kurtz Fellowship, the Gilbert Y. Chin Fellowship, the R. L. Coble Fellowship, the Carl M. Loeb Fellowship, the David V. Ragone Fellowship, the H. H. Uhlig Graduate Fellowship, the Stuart Z. Uram Fellowship, the Class of '39 Fellowship, the Department Endowed Fellowship, and a fellowship given by an anonymous donor). We also initiated a new fund entitled the Merton C. Fleming Fund to recognize Professor Flemings for the great service which he provided to the department for so many years as Department Head. The initial monies for this fund were provided by the faculty in the department. We hope that this fund will grow into a substantial endowment and further strengthen our graduate fellowships. Our endowed fellowship funds now provide sufficient annual income for one term fellowships for approximately 8 students.
In addition to the above we are the grateful recipients of a number of grants from corporations and foundations to aid our first year students. We have received a large grant from the Starr Foundation which has provided us with up to four fellowships each year for a three year period. We have fellowship support from a number of corporations including TECHINT, SIDOR and The Lord Corporation. Of course, many students have other outside fellowship support as indicated elsewhere in this report. Most recently we have received a fellowship from George Butdorz, the founder of MTS Corporation. Of our 27 domestic students expected to enter in the fall of 1995, 11 will be entering on fellowships from our department and from a variety of sources including, NIH, NSF, DOE, LFM, ONR and the Air Force.
Newly elected members of the Graduate Materials Council (GMC) are: Jeffrey Nystrom (President), Shuba Balasubramanian (Vice President), Valarie Benezra (Treasurer), Ben Tao (Secretary), Douglas Blom and Tracey Burr (DCGS Representatives), G. Kris Schwenke (GSC Representative), James Foresi (Social Chair), Kevin Eberman (Athletic Chair), and Harold Ackler and Tracey Burr (MESSeminars). Officers of the society during academic year 1994-1995 were: Harold Ackler (President), Kamala Crawley (Vice President), Chris San Marchi (Treasurer), Doug Blom (Secretary), Tracy Burr and Laura Giovane and Eric Werwa (DCGS Representatives), Tracy Burr (GSC Representative), Eric Werwa (Social Chair), John Matz (Athletic Chair), and Janelle Gunther (MESS Seminars). GMC continued its seminars, monthly socials and end-of the year barbecue. It continued to undertake the supervision of the arduous but important task of course evaluations.
Officers of the MIT Student Chapter of the Materials Research Society during the academic year 1994-1995 were: T.A. Venkatesh (Chair), Karen Greig (Vice Chair), and Valerie Benezra (Treasurer). The group organized a series of lectures on Materials Research in Industry, with speakers discussing opportunities in materials research at their respective companies. 1995-1996 officers will be elected in the fall.
The Association of Materials Students Societies (aMaSS) is a coalition of student chapters of three materials professional societies: Materials Research Society (MRS), ASM International/The Materials, Metals & Minerals Society (ASM/TMS), and the American Ceramics Society (ACerS). The association was formed in 1992 with the purpose of increasing the profile of MIT in the professional society of materials research. Membership is offered to undergraduate and graduate students, from all departments of MIT, who are interested in materials. Officers of aMaSS during academic year 1994-1995 were: Andrew Gouldstone and Ingchie N. Kwan (Co- Chairmen), Kamala J. Crawley (Treasurer), and Karen K. Greig (Secretary). Newly elected officers of the association are: Andrew Gouldstone and Lori Maiorino (Co-Chairmen), and Valarie Benezra (Treasurer) and Karen Greig (Secretary). The Chairpersons of the three student chapters during the academic year 1994-1995 were: T.A. Venkatesh (MRS), Laura Giovane (ASM/TMS), and Andrew Kim (ACerS). Newly elected officers of the three student chapters for 1995-1996 are: T.A. Venkatesh (MRS), Laura Giovani (ASM/TMS), and Sara Ransom (ACers).
Term chairs, especially those held by junior faculty members, are of immense value to the holders in building their careers. Faculty from this Department currently occupy 3 such chairs, they are: Gerbrand Ceder, ALCOA Assistant Professor of Mechanical Metallurgy; Michael J. Cima, Norton Associate Professor of Ceramics Processing; and Anne M. Mayes, Class of '48 Assistant Professor of Polymer Physics.
During this academic year, Professor Gerbrand Ceder received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program Award. It is a National Science Foundation-wide award instrument for the support of junior faculty within the context of their overall career development and combines in a single program the support of quality research and education in the broadest sense and the full participation of those traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering. So far, Professor Ceder's award has been the only CAREER Award given in the materials theory program out of 22 applications. During the past year Professor Yet-Ming Chiang served as the Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Solid-State Studies in Ceramics. Professor Joel P. Clark was elected an AT&T Fellow. Professor David C. Dunand was a visiting summer faculty member at Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie, CNRS in Lille, France. Professor Thomas W. Eagar was asked to present the Nelson W. Taylor Lectures at Pennsylvania State University. Professor Eugene A. Fitzgerald received the 1994 TMS Robert Lansing Hardy Medal of the Metallurgical Society of AIME as the most promising young materials scientist in the country. Professor Flemings was made Honorary Member of the Japan Institute of Metals.
Professor Linn W. Hobbs became an Inaugural Editorial Board Member of the Journal of the Microscopy Society of America. The Electro-chemical Society presented Professor Lionel C. Kimerling with the 1995 Electronics Division Award. Professor Kirk D. Kolenbrander received the 1995 Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Professor Ronald M. Latanision received the 1994 W. R. Whitney Award from NACE International and was Visiting Professor at the University of Naples, Italy. Professor Heather N. Lechtman was Getty Scholar, in residence at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities. Dr. James N. Livingston was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Professor Regis Pelloux received the Albert Sauveur Achievement Award of ASM International.
A collection of math and science problems originating in Russia has been turned into a book co-authored by Professor Robert M. Rose entitled, "The Chicken from Minsk: And 99 other Infuriatingly Challenging Brain Teasers from the Great Russian Tradition of Math and Science." Professor Donald R. Sadoway received a MacVicar Faculty Fellowship for his excellence in undergraduate education over many years. It was a busy year for Professor Subra Suresh, who was elected Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, was invited as the Midwest Mechanics Lecturer by eight midwestern universities, and was selected as a Principal Editor for both Acta Metallurgica et Materialia and Scripta Metallurgica et Materialia . Professor Julian Szekely presented the Hawkins Memorial Lecturer at Purdue University and gave one of the Yukawa Memorial Lectures in Tokyo, Japan, and was made Honorary Member of the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan. Professor Edwin L. Thomas was elected Vice Chairman of the Gordon Conference on Polymer Physics. Acting Dean of Engineering, Professor John B. Vander Sande along with Dr. Gregory Yurek, formerly a member of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and now president of American Superconductor Corporation, received the 1994 Massachusetts Columbus Quincentennial Award in recognition of the "spirit of discovery" for their "breakthrough work in developing high-temperature superconductors." Dean Vander Sande and Dr. Yurek gave the $5,000 prize, plus $5,000 in American Superconductor stock, to UROP, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, to foster development of innovative applications of high-temperature superconductor wires. Professor August F. Witt completed a major study on crystallization and solidification and developed a research plan on these topics for the European Community. Professor Ioannis V. Yannas was elected Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering, Society for Biomaterials.
MIT Reports to the President 1994-95