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:

2001 - Michael F. Ashby

2002 - William D. Nix

2003 - Mildred S. Dresselhaus

2004 - Larry L. Hench

2005 - John W. Cahn

2006 - Ali S. Argon

2007 - Manfred Ruehle

2008 - A. H. Heuer

2009 - Edwin (Ned) Thomas

2011 - Frans Spaepen

2012 - Edward J. Kramer

2013 - Harry A. Atwater

2014 - Joanna Aizenberg: "Stealing from Nature: Bioinspired Materials of the Future"

2015 - Peter Voorhees: "Watching Microstructure Evolve in Three Dimensions"

2016 - William L. Johnson: "What are Glasses?: Atomic Organization and the Price of Non-Conformity" and "Science and Technology of Metallic Glasses"

2017 Bicentennial Lecture - Nobel Laureate Dan Shechtman  "Quasi-Periodic Crystals"

2017 - Rammamoorhy Ramesh - Lecture video "Energy: The True Final Frontier" and "Electric Field Control of Magnetism"

2018 - Subra Suresh - "Materials Science and the Study of Human Diseases"