Lecture Series

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:
2024 - Tresa Pollock - "Structure and Defect Development during Metal Additive Manufacturing: Insights from
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: "Watching Microstructure Evolve in Three Dimensions"
2014 - Joanna Aizenberg: "Stealing from Nature: Bioinspired Materials of the Future"
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

