Each year, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering brings a world-renowned materials expert to campus to serve as the Van Horn Lecturer, delivering three public lectures and meeting with the department community over the course of several days each spring.
The Kent R. van Horn Lecturship is an endowed lectureship that dates from 1974. It honors alumnus Kent R. van Horn, who had a distinguished career as a metallurgist, director of research, and ultimately the corporate vice president of Alcoa.
Each year, department faculty members assess the state of the art in materials science around the world, and nominate individuals who have been pivotal in advancing the field both over his or her career and, in particular, in recent years.
Watch past Van Horn Lectures:
Harry A. Atwater, April 17-19, 2018
Lecture 1: Fueling Human Progress with Sunlight
Harry A. Atwater: Van Horn Lecture Series Part 1
Lecture 2: Tunable Light-Matter Interactions in Two-Dimensional Materials and Metasurfaces
Harry A. Atwater: Van Horn Lecture Series Part 2
Lecture 3: Trip the Light Fantastic: Photonic materials Challenges for Interstellar Travel
Harry A. Atwater: Van Horn Lecture Series Part 3
Christopher Schuh, March 28-31, 2017
Lecture 1: Harder, Cheaper, Greener: The Materials of Nanostructured Metal Coatings
Harder, Cheaper, Greener: The Materials Science of Nanostructured Metal Coatings
Lecture 2: Materials Entrepreneurship: Nanostructured Metal Coatings as a "Platform Technology"
Lecture 3: Materials Scale-Up Science: How Thermodynamics Enables Mass Manufacturing
Wayne Kaplan, March 22-24, 2016
Lecture 1: Wetting of Interfaces
Lecture 2: Thermodynamics of Interfaces
Wayne Kaplan: Van Horn Lecture Series Part 2Wayne Kaplan: Van Horn Lecture Series Part 2
Lecture 3: Boundary Mobility
2016 Van Horn Distinguished Lectures: 3 (boundary mobility)
Harry Bhadeshia, March 31-April 2, 2015
Lecture 1: Extremely Complex Problems
2015 Van Horn Distinguished Lectures: 1
Lecture 2: The Evolution of Solutions
2015 Van Horn Distinguished Lectures: 2
Lecture 3: First Bulk Nanostructured Metal
2015 Van Horn Distinguished Lectures: 3
Previous Lecturers
2014: Tresa Pollock
2013: Eduard Arzt
2012: Michael Finnis
2011: Yet-Ming Chiang
2010: A. Lindsay Greer
2009: Angela Belcher
2008: Subra Suresh
2006: Sheldon Wiederhorn
2005: Peter W. Voorhees
2004: Terence E. Mitchell
2003: Sumino Iijima
2002: David Embury
2001: William J. Boettinger
2000: Herbert Gleiter
1999: David Clarke
1998: Peter Hazzledine
1997: Robert O. Ritchie
1996: Manfred Rühle
1995: William D. Kingery
1994: L. Michael Brown
1993: Peter Hirsch
1992: Robert W. Balluffi
1991: William D. Nix
1990: S. Amelinckx
1989: James Rice
1988: Mats Hillert
1986: Peter Haasen
1985: Michael F. Ashby
1984: Martin E. Glicksman
1983: Anthony G. Evans
1982: John P. Hirth
1981: David Turnbull
1980: Robert D. Pehlke
1979: John W. Cahn
1978: Ray E. Smallman
1977: Robert T. Wei
1975: Raymond F. Decker
1974: Joseph E. Burke