October 23, 2003

Weertman to receive von Hippel Award

Julia R. Weertman, Walter P. Murphy Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering, will receive the 2003 von Hippel Award from the Materials Research Society during its annual fall meeting Dec. 3.

Julia R. Weertman

The prestigious international award, the highest honor given by the society, recognizes “those qualities most prized by scientists and engineers — brilliance and originality of intellect, combined with vision that transcends the boundaries of conventional scientific disciplines.”

Weertman is cited “for lifelong exceptional contributions to understanding the basic deformation processes and failure mechanisms in a wide class of materials, from nanocrystalline metals to high-temperature structural alloys, and for her inspiring role as an educator in materials science.” She is the first Northwestern faculty member and first woman to receive the award.

A $10,000 cash prize and a ruby laser crystal symbolizing the many-faceted nature of materials research will be presented to Weertman at a ceremony where she will deliver the plenary lecture. The award is named for Arthur von Hippel, the 1976 inaugural recipient, whose interdisciplinary pioneering research substantially furthered the science of materials.

Weertman also was invited to deliver the Alpha Sigma Mu Distinguished Lecture for ASM International, a materials professional society which named her a fellow in 1988. The lecture was given Oct. 13 in Pittsburgh at ASM’s 2003 Materials Solutions meeting.

Weertman’s distinguished career has been marked by many honors. She received two Special Creativity Awards for Research from the National Science Foundation, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Leadership Award from the Mineral, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), and a Distinguished Engineering Educator Award and an Achievement Award from the Society of Women Engineers. She is a fellow of TMS and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

Weertman has been an active participant in various professional societies since the 1970s. Currently she is a member of the scientific advisory committees for the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies and the Center for Nanophase Materials Science and the NRC’s National Materials Advisory Board. She serves on the Board of Review Editors for Science magazine and as a director of the Materials Research Society.

After earning three degrees in physics from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and holding a postdoctoral fellowship at Ecole Normal Superieure in Paris, Weertman worked as a solid state physicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. She took a leave to raise a family in the 1960s, coming to Northwestern in 1972 as visiting assistant professor of materials science. She chaired the department from 1987 to 1992.

Weertman has authored more than 150 technical publications and holds three patents. Her current research centers on the mechanical behavior of nanocrystalline metals.