The Van Vlack Lectureship series was established in honor of Lawrence H. Van Vlack, whose seminal introductory textbooks defined the field of materials science and engineering. It is awarded annually to a materials scientist or engineer of distinguished accomplishment.
Past Honorees of the Van Vlack Lectureship:
| Year | Lecture / Speaker |
|---|---|
| 2025 | David Srolovitz – “The Grain Boundary Ratchets: novel approaches to engineering grain size” |
| 2024 | Tresa Pollock – “Structure and Defect Development during Metal Additive Manufacturing: Insights from TriBeam Tomography” |
| 2023 | Sossina Haile – “Sustainable Electrochemical Energy Technologies Enabled by Superprotonic Conductors” |
| 2022 | Susan Sinnott – “Material Design and Discovery” |
| 2020 | M. Stanley Whittingham – “Overcoming Climate Change: The Critical Role and Challenges of Energy Storage” |
| 2019 | Frances M. Ross – “Visualizing Dynamic Processes in Liquids in the Electron Microscope” |
| 2018 | Subra Suresh – “Materials Science and the Study of Human Diseases” |
| 2017 | Rammamoorhy Ramesh – Lecture video “Energy: The True Final Frontier” and “Electric Field Control of Magnetism” |
| 2017 Bicentennial Lecture | Nobel Laureate Dan Shechtman – “Quasi-Periodic Crystals” |
| 2016 | William L. Johnson – “What are Glasses?: Atomic Organization and the Price of Non-Conformity” and “Science and Technology of Metallic Glasses” |
| 2015 | Peter Voorhees |
| 2014 | Joanna Aizenberg |
| 2013 | Harry A. Atwater |
| 2012 | Edward J. Kramer |
| 2011 | Frans Spaepen |
| 2009 | Edwin (Ned) Thomas |
| 2008 | A. H. Heuer |
| 2007 | Manfred Ruehle |
| 2006 | Ali S. Argon |
| 2005 | John W. Cahn |
| 2004 | Larry L. Hench |
| 2003 | Mildred S. Dresselhaus |
| 2002 | William D. Nix |
| 2001 | Michael F. Ashby |