The MSE Wall of Fame was established to honor alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of the department for outstanding accomplishments and/or service which made an exceptional impact on the operation, recognition, visibility and reputation of the department.
Inductees include:
Karl A. Gschneidner, Jr.
MSE Distinguished Professor, Karl Gschneidner, Jr. is renowned for his expertise on the alloy theory, phase formation, magnetic, thermal, electrical, and mechanical properties of rare-earth materials. He has published more than 400 archival journal articles, 14 patents, and the 37-volume Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
O. Norman Carlson
From his early years on the Manhattan project to his later years as Metallurgy Department chair and Ames Lab Metallurgy Division chief, Dr. Carlson became internationally renowned for expertise in high-purity metals, phase equilibria, and mass transport in solids. He held eight patents and wrote 120 papers, two books, and numerous book chapters.
John Croat
During the 1980s, Dr. Croat played an instrumental role in the discovery of NdFeB bonded permanent magnets and holds eleven patents in this area. He spent twenty years on the commercial development of these materials and helped found two companies currently producing these materials. Today, NdFeB bonded magnets are used in a wide variety of computer peripheral, office automation, and consumer electronic products.
Gerald “Skip” Fehr
Dr. Fehr is one of the world’s leading authorities in semiconductor device packaging and a “founding father” of the computer industry, working for then small companies such as Intel, LSI Logic, and his own company, Integrated Packaging and Assembly Corporation. Fehr holds seven patents and has written dozens of technical articles.
Baiyun Huang
Dr. Huang was president of Central South University, one of China’s top institutions. He holds 20 patents and wrote over 100 technical papers primarily on powder metallurgy. He established a major manufacturing firm, is a fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and directed CSU’s Powder Metallurgy Research Institute.
Alan Renken
Alan Renken, a 1967 graduate of Iowa State University, worked 36 years at Alcoa, rising to the positions of vice president and primary metals president. In 2006, he and his wife established the Alan and Julie Renken professorship in Materials Science and Engineering. An active alumnus, Renken serves on several committees and is a major supporter of the College of Engineering and the ISU Foundation.
John F. Smith
During WWII, MSE Emeritus Professor Smith was a naval aviator on the USS Suwanee. In the Post-War years, he was a pioneering materials scientist with expertise in metallic bonding interactions and thermodynamic properties and the prediction of phase equilibria from the thermodynamic data. He also served as chair of ISU’s Metallurgy Department from 1966 to 1970.
Dean Wiley
Ceramic Engineering alumnus, Dean Wiley, has had a distinguished industrial career in glass fabrication. He and his wife, Marge, started International Technologies Consultants, a float glass process design and development firm with major projects worldwide. A long-time MSE Industrial Advisory Council member, Wiley has also served as an MSE executive-in-residence.
Dan Shechtman
MSE Professor Dan Shechtman’s 1982 discovery of quasicrystals is the best known of his numerous scientific achievements and earned him the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, membership in the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and membership in the European Academy of Science. His research findings on quasicrystals were initially controversial but are now universally accepted as a new form of crystalline material. His discoveries rewrote chemistry and crystallography textbooks and inspire future generations of scientists and engineers.
Robert C. Tucker, Jr.
Dr. Tucker served as Corporate Fellow and Director of Business Development for Praxair Surface Technologies and adjunct professor at North Dakota State University and the University of Illinois U/C. He has presented/published over 150 papers and has 23 patents related to protective coatings and surface science and engineering. Dr. Tucker is a past President and Fellow of ASM International.
David Wilder
MSE Emeritus Professor, David Wilder, served as department chair from 1961 to 1988, managing the 1975 merger of the Ceramic and Metallurgy departments into today’s MSE department. Dr. Wilder’s research was centered on ceramic processing for nuclear applications. He was a fellow of the American Ceramic Society and the Iowa Academy of Science and a recipient of the ISU Alumni Association’s Superior Service Award.
R. Bruce Thompson
MSE Distinguished Professor, R. Bruce Thompson, is internationally renowned for his research in ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation. He has served for many years as director of ISU’s Center for Nondestructive Evaluation. He holds 24 U.S. patents and has published over 90 articles in archival journals and well over 300 papers in edited conference proceedings. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
John D. Verhoeven
Anson Marston Distinguished Professor Emeritus, John Verhoeven, specialized in diffusion and mass transport in liquid metals, metal solidification, and preparation of composite materials. He performed groundbreaking research on Damascus steel, holds 11 patents, wrote more than 200 journal articles and conference proceedings and the classic 1975 textbook, Fundamentals of Physical Metallurgy.