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Morris E. Fine Lecture

Biography

Morris FineMorris E. Fine, the Walter P. Murphy and Technological Institute Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering, is a pioneer in teaching the unifying concepts underlying all classes of materials: metals, ceramics, polymers, biomaterials, and electronic materials. He is a founder of Northwestern’s materials science and engineering department, the first of its kind in the world. His research career at Northwestern has spanned a broad range of topics, from physical chemistry to mechanical behavior, and includes studies on metals and alloys, ceramics, and composite materials.

Fine received his PhD in physical metallurgy from the University of Minnesota in 1943. After working on the Manhattan Project in Chicago and Los Alamos, he worked for Bell Labs until 1954, when he came to Northwestern.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fine is a fellow of the Metals, Minerals, and Materials Society (TMS)ASM International, the American Ceramic Society, and the American Physical Society. He is an honorary member of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers and the Japan Institute of Metals.

Fine published more than 300 papers. He received numerous awards, including the TMS 2009 Application to Practice Award for research that led to a new steel with better corrosion resistance, toughness, and welding properties. This steel was selected to be used for a new bridge in northern Illinois.

Previous Speakers

Rebecca Schulman, Johns Hopkins
"Animating soft materials using molecular programs"
October 4, 2022

Dierk Raabe, Max Planck Institute
"Sustainability of Metals and their role in Circular Economy"
May 31, 2022

Carol Handwerker, Purdue University
"Heterogeneous Stress Relaxation in Tin Thin Films: Whiskers, Hillocks, and Beyond"
May 25, 2021

Susanne Stemmer, University of California, Santa Barbara 
"Topological Heterostructures by Molecular Beam Epitaxy"
February 20, 2019

Gerbrand Ceder, University of California, Berkeley 
"Synthesis, the new frontier for computational materials"
February 5, 2019

Lorna Gibson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Structure and Mechanics of Bamboo"
October 11, 2016

Mark Asta, University of California at Berkeley
“Twinning in HCP Metals:  Anomalous Energetics and How They May Be Useful”
March 1, 2016

Christopher Schuh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Grain Boundary Alloying in Nanocrystalline Metals, from Theory to Practice"
Feb. 24, 2015

Ian Robinson, University College London & London Centre for Nanotechnology
"Nanoparticle Structure Using Coherent X-ray Diffraction"
Nov. 19, 2013

Peter W. Voorhees, Northwestern University
"Watching Microstructure Evolve in Three Dimensions"
Jan. 8, 2013

John Allison, University of Michigan
"Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME): The Next Big Thing in Materials"
Oct. 25, 2011

Yet-Ming Chiang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Materials Research to Improve Electrical Storage for Transportation and the Electric Grid"
Oct. 7, 2010

Subra Suresh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Materials Science at the Intersections of Nanotechnology, Life Sciences and Human Health”
Oct. 16, 2009