U.Va. Department of Materials Science & Engineering
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Developing Leaders of Innovation
SUMMER 2013
NEWS
50 years of MSE
Contents
3
50 Years! Milestones
and Memories from
1963 to 2013
8
10
11
The History of
Engineering Science
Student
Highlights
Faculty Notes &
Alumni Updates
Editor
Eric Newsome
Writer, Copy-Editor, Contributing Editor
Susan H. Bagby
Graphic Design
Travis Searcy,
Mountain High Media
Photography
Eric Newsome, Susan H. Bagby
MSE News is published by the
University of Virginia School of
Engineering and Applied Science
Department of Materials Science and
Engineering.
Address corrections should be sent
to the Department of Material Sciecne
and Engineering, P.O. Box 400745,
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4745, or call
434.924-7237, or email [email protected].
from the chair’s chair
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering has now reached a significant milestone,
one that deserves both reflection and celebration. The 1963-64 academic year was the first full
year of this department’s existence as a degree-granting entity. Now, fifty years later, we prepare
for the challenges of another academic year as we sustain and extend the department’s fundamental emphasis on meaningful research.
From that first group of six founding faculty--Professors Catlin, Garnick, Muller, KuhlmannWilsdorf, Lawless, and Wilsdorf—we have grown to include a roster of twenty-three faculty and
ten research scientists. From sharing basement quarters in Thornton Hall to residing in two
buildings dedicated to our field, our physical presence has also expanded significantly. This May
we graduated seven master’s and ten Ph.D. recipients along with thirty undergraduates. We are
proud of the successes of our many alumni, who live and work and make important contributions in places around the world.
From May 24th through the 26th, our External Advisory Board, composed of alumni met in
Wilsdorf Hall with a variety of representative groups from the department. Faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students were all given opportunities to discuss the issues they face and
their goals for the department. The board met behind closed doors to frame a report and generate suggestions for where we should direct our energies in the years ahead.
As we enter our next half-century, let me express my profound gratitude for the committed endeavor of faculty, staff and students who have called MSE home over the years. Your cumulative
efforts have made the department the vibrant, exciting place it is today. This issue of our newsletter, focused on the history of the department, is dedicated to all of you.
William C. Johnson
Department Chair
NEWS
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SUMMER 2012
Developing Leaders of Innovation
milestones & memories from 1963 to 2013
Introducing the study of materials science to the University of Virginia in the 1960s transformed the
century-old School of Engineering. In the 1962-63 academic year, the undergraduate record of the
university listed, for the first time, two courses in materials science. Prof. Ralph (Harry) Nash was the
titular head of a new engineering division called materials science, and during that period
Professor Heinz Wilsdorf arrived at the university to chair the emerging department.
Heinz G. F.
Wilsdorf
Kenneth R. Lawless
Frederik A. Muller
C. J. Doris
Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf
1963 —
Department is founded.
1968 — The
first 500kv
RCA electron
microscope at
any US university
installed here
1966 — First
Ph.D. granted to Earl Ray
Thompson in Materials Science
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SUMMER 2012
Avery Catlin
Fred Gornick
1974 — Under Glenn
Stoner’s direction, the Applied
Electrochemistry Laboratories
established (later to become CESE).
continued on page 4
50 years of MSE
Outings to RA Johnson’s “cabin” in the 1990’s were a favorite activity
of the MSE community. Students, faculty and their families shared in
games of volleyball, taking a swim and eating smoked BBQ.
Left: lower L - R: Pat Moran (MSE ‘80), Professor George Cahen, John Parcells
top l-r: Rich Baron (MSE ‘98), Gerry Stafford (MSE ‘80), Louie Scribner, Professor Glenn Stoner
continued from page 3
department’s guiding philosophy, as stated in its earliest departmental brochure: “The study of materials may be pursued in relation to
their technical importance…or by considering the general principles
that govern their properties. At the University of Virginia, the latter
course has been adopted, which leads to an understanding of materials
through the study of both macroscopic and microscopic view points.”
Professor Emeritus Bill Jesser joined the department as a young assistant professor in 1968, after completing three degrees in physics at
the University of Virginia. Prof. Jesser tells us that the business of this
department has always been “teaching fundamental courses in scientific principles that are enduring.”
The Professors Wilsdorf (first chairman Heinz G. F. and University
Professor Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf ) established expectations of academic rigor and breadth in coursework and research that persist to this
day. Professor Avery Catlin (solid state physics), who was influential
in convincing the School of Engineering to add a division of Materials
Science, was among the initial cohort of departmental faculty. (Profes-
As Virginius Dabney noted in his book, Mr. Jefferson’s University: A
History (1981), the engineering school added analytical science-based
fields of study under the leadership of Dean Quarles in the 1960s.
“New graduate curricula in materials science and biomedical engineering were introduced. These programs typified the increased attention
to advanced science and to expansion of engineering interests into
new areas of public concern”(435). The undergraduate record of the
following year (1963-64) listed Materials Science as a degree-granting
department, with a full complement of courses and Professor Wilsdorf
serving as chair. 1963-64 was also the first year the engineering school
was officially named the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
From its beginning, the Department of Materials Science and
Engineering has been nationally (even internationally) recognized
for its focus on determining the structure of materials. To that end,
the first high voltage electron microscope at any American university
(and only the second one in the U.S.) was installed here in 1968. The
500 kV RCA electron microscope was the physical declaration of the
1976 — Professor
Ken Lawless succeeds
Heinz Wilsdorf as
department chair.
1984 —
Edgar Starke,
the Earnest
Oglesby
Professor of
Materials
Science,
becomes Dean
of SEAS
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SUMMER 2012
1986 — MSE gets its own building, partially
through an initiative by Dean Starke to found a
new Light Metals Center as part of the department.
Developing Leaders of Innovation
“From its beginning, the Department of Materials Science
and Engineering has been nationally (even internationally)
recognized for its focus on determining the structure of materials.”
—Professor Bill Jessor
Department anniversaries prompted alumni gathererings to celebrate the 20th (above) and
30th (at left) anniversies of the department’s founding.
sor Catlin would eventually serve as the university’s executive vice-president under President Frank Hereford.) Rounding out the group of six
first faculty members were Prof. Fred Gornick (polymer science), Prof.
Kenneth Lawless (surface chemistry and physics), and Prof. Frederik
Muller (crystallography). In the 1960s, the departmental offices and
laboratories were located in the basement of Thornton Hall’s A wing.
With the 500 kV transmission electron microscope as its foremost
instrument, and JEM-6 and Siemens1A electron microscopes also available, Professor Lawless founded the “Electron Microscope Facility” as
a center of research within the department. X-ray equipment, including diffractometers and spectrometers, complemented the microscope
facility. In a 1969 description of the department’s physical facilities, the
potential graduate student or researcher was assured of a connection to
computing services: “The University Computing Center is located in
Gilmer Hall—two buildings away on McCormick Road. The depart-
1986 — Tom Courtney takes
over as chair.
1992 — Engineering Physics becomes part of MSE.
Number of departmental grad students reaches 100
for first time.
1986 — CESE recognized as a
“Technology Development Center”
by the Virginia Center for Innovative
Technology.
1986 — Departments name changed
to Department of Materials Science and
Engineering by new chair.
ment of Materials Science has a remote terminal which permits direct
communication with the Burroughs B-5500 Computer.”
Known from its beginning as research-oriented and graduatecentered, the department granted the first Ph.D. in Materials Science
in 1966. In the following year (1966-67), three students completed
master’s degrees, and one more student completed a doctorate. As
a 1967 departmental brochure states, “In addition to the graduate
program, undergraduate courses are offered and an opportunity for
undergraduate training in preparation for graduate studies in materials science is provided through the Engineering Science program.”
Also established in 1963-64, the undergraduate program in Engineering Science continues its long association with the Department
of Materials Science. (Please see a separate article in this issue for a
history of the undergraduate program.)
After ten years (1976-77), 37 additional master’s degrees and 39
doctorates had been conferred while the department grew incrementally. Professor Lawless took over as chair in 1976 and continued in
the role through June of 1986. As new faculty and equipment were
2001 — Alumnus (1971)
Gregory Olsen gives
$15 million dollar gift
towards a new building
in honor of Doris and
Heinz Wilsdorf.
1991 —
Bill Jesser
becomes chair
NEWS
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SUMMER 2012
continued on page 6
50 years of MSE
See someone you want to tag? Want to add a picture of your own?
The alumni connection portal has both private and public groups in which
you can both tag old friends or upload photos.
www.virginia.edu/ms/people/alumni/
continued from page 5
added, offices and laboratories migrated to the main floor of Thornton
Hall’s B wing. Under Edgar Starke, dean of SEAS from 1984-1994
and the Earnest Oglesby Professor of Materials Science, construction of a new building to house both materials science and chemical
engineering began. By the time of its official opening in 1986, the new
building was designated to house only materials science.
Dean Starke’s vision for the new materials science building incorporated a plan to establish a “Light Metals Center,” conceived in conjunction with a 1984 Commonwealth of Virginia funding initiative
to support research in the field of materials science. As Dean Starke
described it at its inception, “The mission of the (Light Metals) Center
includes the education and training of graduate students in the light
metals area, the establishment of a focused research effort on light
metals, and the stimulation of technical interaction and technology
transfer between the Center, industry and government laboratories.”
Professor and former chair Heinz Wilsdorf was named the director
of the center. Describing the faculty of the department as being “of
a high quality and high productivity,” active in national societies and
holding numerous patents, Dean Starke designated a role for each
one in the new Light Metals Center. Today the center, now under
the direction of Professor Sean Agnew, continues its ground-breaking
research in magnesium alloys.
Under the leadership of Prof. Glenn Stoner, the Applied Electrochemistry Laboratories were established as a center of departmental
2003 — First woman
faculty Petra Reinke hired.
2005 —
The Electron Microscopy
Center and the X-Ray
Characterization Facility
merged to become the NMCF.
2002 — Rick Gangloff becomes
chair. Construction of Wilsdorf
Hall begins.
NEWS
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SUMMER 2012
2006 — Wilsdorf Hall
opens in November.
Developing Leaders of Innovation
research in 1974. In 1986, with a new, more encompassing name,
the center (now known as the Center for Electrochemical Science and
Engineering) was designated a “Technology Development Center” by
the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology. Currently under the
direction of Professors Rob Kelly and John Scully, CESE is internationally recognized as a center of excellence, and in 2009, received the
NACE Distinguished Organization award.
During the chairmanship of Professor Tom Courtney, beginning
July, 1986, the department’s official name was changed to Materials
Science and Engineering. As the 1982 20th anniversary issue of the
department’s brochure had previously explained, “The majority of the
course work in the Materials Science Department is oriented toward
the science of materials while the research projects involve both science
and engineering.” The change in name may have seemed an afterthought (or long-overdue), but it served to align the department more
integrally with the rest of the school of engineering.
Professor Jesser began his term as chair in 1991, and in July of
1992, the small SEAS division of Engineering Physics merged with the
Department of Materials Science and Engineering. As Prof. Jesser explains, “There was a natural synergism among the faculty in engineering physics and materials science since their research activities were so
similar.”. Through these mergers, Professors R.E. Johnson and Raul
Baragiola added their highly-regarded expertise to the department.
For the first time, the number of graduate students in the department
would total 100: 71 MSE grads and 29 in Engineering Physics.
Under the chairmanship of Prof. Rick Gangloff, beginning in
August of 2002, the department moved its footprint into the 21st
century. Construction was underway by 2002 on Wilsdorf Hall,
largely through the generosity of MSE alumnus Gregory H. Olsen,
whose gift of $15 million in January of 2001 launched this new phase
in the department’s history. The building was opened and dedicated in
2006. The first woman hired as departmental faculty, Professor Petra
Reinke, arrived on grounds in 2003. [During her long tenure as an
integral contributor to the department, Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf was
a university professor and not officially MSE faculty.] Prof. Reinke
established her laboratory research in surface science around the use of
a scanning-tunneling electron microscope.
Having added a number of state-of-the-art instruments, the former
Electron Microscopy Center merged with the X-ray Characterization
Facility in 2005, also incorporating the metallographic equipment and
optical microscopes. As Professor Jim Howe, head of the new facility,
explains, “Because the facility now contained a variety of instruments,
all aimed at characterizing materials at the highest levels of resolution,
the name was changed to the Nanoscale Materials Characterization
Facility.” The acquisition of the Titan microscope by the NMCF in
2011 was a significant enhancement to the facility’s capabilities.
Professor Bill Johnson took over as chair in 2008 and continued the
focus on raising the department’s profile. Believing that the department’s financial future may well be determined by the strength of its
undergraduate program, Prof. Johnson worked to grow the engineering science program. His efforts have been rewarded. In May of 2008,
the engineering science program graduated eleven students; in May
of 2012, a record-breaking 49 students graduated with a bachelor’s in
engineering science, including twelve in the materials science concentration. (Please see separate article on ES in this issue.) Even with the
nation’s economic downturn in 2008 and the resulting constraints on
the department’s budget, Prof. Johnson has been able to add three new
faculty members: Prof. Jiwei Lu, Prof. Beth Opila, and Prof. Jimmy
Burns.
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering moves into
the next half-century of its existence rededicated to advancements
in research and to excellence in the education of both graduate and
undergraduate students.
read more: www.virginia.edu/people/alumni/
2011 — Acquisition of
the Titan microscope.
2008 — Bill Johnson
takes over as chair.
2010 — ES/
MSE degree
program is made
official. Also
Nanomedicine.
NEWS
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SUMMER 2012
2012 —
Largest
graduating
class ever for
Engineering
Science (49).
50 years of MSE
Engineering science:
A degree of difference in
its fiftieth year
Current program Director Sean Agnew (at left) and
former director Dana Elzey (at right) examining
posters from the 4th year research presentations.
In all of the previous years of the program’s existence, the Engineering Science class
of 2000 had the largest number of graduates, with twenty-two. In May of 2012,
forty-nine students received their degrees in Engineering Science. The program
flourishes as it reaches its 50th anniversary year.
The Engineering Science degree program was first offered to students
in the 1963-64 academic year, introduced in the undergraduate record
in much the same way it is described there today. A degree that allows
cross-pollination between engineering and the pure sciences, or among
engineering disciplines, Engineering Science offers students a path to
careers in emerging fields of engineering and applied science. Paired
in the undergraduate record for that academic year with the engineering honors program [not yet named the Rodman Scholars program]
Engineering Science was the recommended degree program for the
undergraduate honors students. Since it is interdisciplinary and inherently more flexible than the traditional undergraduate engineering
degree programs, those who instituted the Engineering Science program
believed it would allow very bright students to tailor their degrees to
match their post-graduate research and career goals.
Professor Emeritus R. Edward Barker, Jr., arrived at the Department
NEWS
of Materials Science and Engineering in 1967 and became the faculty
chairman of the Engineering Science program that same year. From that
time forward, the Engineering Science program has been administered
under the auspices of MSE. Prof. Barker tells us that from its inception the ES program expected near-master’s level work on the students’
fourth-year projects. In the early years, several SEAS faculty insisted
that the Engineering Science degree should be ABET accredited, but
after considering how accreditation would greatly inhibit the flexibility
of the degree, Dean Lawrence Quarles, who was deeply committed to
Engineering Science, concluded that pursuing ABET was not compatible with the program’s goals. Today, the Engineering Science degree
requires two minors and an area of concentration; one of the minors
must be in engineering, but the second minor may be in engineering,
mathematics, or science. The area of concentration is also comprised of
technical courses intended to add depth or definition to the minors.
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SUMMER 2012
Developing Leaders of Innovation
One Degree: Many paths
Professor R.E. Johnson succeeded
Prof. Barker as director of the Engineering Science program, followed by
Prof. Dana Elzey. Prof. Sean Agnew
is the current director of the program.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s,
the Department of Biomedical
Engineering used the template and
flexibility of the Engineering Science
degree to pilot an undergraduate degree program for their students. After
testing a combination of courses,
BME arrived at a curriculum for a
Bachelor’s of Science in Biomedical
Engineering, launched in 2004. The
success of that endeavor led BME
and MSE to join forces again and
offer the Engineering Science named
program called ES/Nanomedicine.
Students enrolled in the Nanomedicine program have minors in BME,
MSE, and/or chemistry, and take
a significant number of courses in
all three areas. The first full class of
Engineering Science/Nanomedicine
students, eighteen in all, graduated in
May, 2012.
Launched simultaneously with ES/
Nanomedicine, ES/Materials Science
and Engineering offers a long-awaited
concentration, the close equivalent
to an outright undergraduate major
in MSE. The academic rigor of the
concentration and the outstanding
academic success of the students pursuing the degree have been most encouraging. Twelve students graduated
with a BS in ES/MSE in May, 2012,
among them two honors students.
In all of the previous years of the
program’s existence, the Engineering
Science class of 2000 had the largest
number of graduates, with twentytwo. In May of 2012, forty-nine
students received their degrees in
Engineering Science. The program
flourishes as it reaches its 50th anniversary year.
From Left or Right: Bobby Author, William Jacobs, Matthew Rippe, and Dan Michaelson preparing to walk the lawn in 2010.
All four of students pictured harnessed the inherent adaptibility of the Engineering Science degree in different ways - and each to
great success - by pursueing interdisciplinary areas about which they were passionate, and for which there existed no currently
established major. Bobby Arthur who was the 2012 SEAS outstanding student is studying environmental fluid mechanics and
hydrology at Stanford. Will Jacobs doubled majored in ES and Physics and earned a Goldwater Scholarship, Gates Award, and
continued on the study at Cambridge. Matt Rippe chose the MSE concentration and went to on to graduate study at the University of
Florida. Dan Michaelson forged a path in the vein of sustainable engineering combining minors in Environmental Science and Civil
Engineering and started several on-grounds sustainable programs.“
read more:
www.seas.virginia.edu/engineeringscience
NEWS
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SUMMER 2012
MSE today
STUDENT Highlights:
Congratulations to Andrew King (MSE PhD) on earning the 2013 A.B.
Campbell Award from the National Association of Corrosion Engineers. The
A.B. Campbell Award recognizes the most outstanding manuscript published in
Materials Performance or CORROSION Journal during the previous year by an
author under 35 years of age at the time of submission.
Also at the Spring NACE conference, Rebecca Schaller and Jay Srinivasan each
received student poster awards. Jay received the Third Place, Marcel Pourbaix
Prize for the Best Poster in Corrosion Science. Rebecca received the Mars Fontana
Corrosion Engineering 3rd place award.
read more: www.virginia.edu/ms/news
NEWS
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SUMMER 2012
Leanna Foster (MSE PhD), Emma Mitchell
(EP PhD) and Luk-kun Tsui (MSE PhD)
each earned nationally competitive fellowships
this past spring. Leanna landed a National
Science Foundation Fellowship and is investigating Cu alloy material research. Emma won
a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship
and is researching the formation and physical properties of ices on outer solar system
surfaces. Luk-Kun secured a second ARCS
Foundation (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) scholarship and is working on
advances utilizing TiO2 nanotubes to harness
ultraviolet energy for photoelectric hydrolysis.
Developing Leaders of Innovation
FACULTY NOTES:
Rob Kelly has been named to a chaired
professorship as the A T & T Professor
in Engineering. In addition to being
an award winning teacher and prolific
researcher, Rob co-directs the Center for
Electrochemical Science and Engineering.
Professor Beth Opila was recently elected
a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society.
She will be formally inducted as part of the
class of 2013 at the fall ECS meeting in San
Francisco. This honor recognizes both her
scientific achievement and her service to
society.
Professors Jerry Floro
and Jim Fitz-Gerald were
recognized by Dean Barry
Johnson as having been
selected by their students
to receive the HartfieldJefferson Teaching Scholar
award. These two MSE
faculty members received
half of the four such
awards presented to SEAS
faculty this year.
The American Nuclear Society has recently selected
Jack Dorning (the Whitney Stone Professor of Nuclear
Science and Engineering Physics) for the Gerald C.
Pomraning Memorial Award. The award from the ANS
recognizes individuals who have made “outstanding
contributions toward the advancement of the fields of
mathematics and/or computation.”
NEWS
11
SUMMER 2012
ALUMNI UPDATE
On April 25-26th the inaugural MSE
external advisory board convened
here in Wilsdorf Hall. Among the
board members are several of MSE’s
most distinguished alumni. Bill
Cassada, Ignatius Chan, Jeffery
Glass, Tom Moore, Elsa Olivetti,
and Greg Olsen generously provided
their time to assist our department. They were tasked with evaluating
where the department now stands
in terms of our educational
and research missions and with
making recommendations for
future initiatives. Individually,
they represent vantage points
from academia, industry, and
entrepreneurial enterprise;
collectively their insights and
guidance will further generate
the ideas, opportunities, and
perspective for the Materials Science
Department. NEWS
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