Ronald Latanision, senior fellow at Exponent and MIT professor emeritus of materials science and engineering and nuclear engineering, was awarded the 2014 Charles L. Hosler Alumni Scholar Medal by Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS). The award was established in 1992 to recognize the very highest levels of intellectual achievement or academic service attained by those educated in EMS. The award is named in honor of Charles L. Hosler, EMS dean, senior vice president for research, dean of The Graduate School, and professor of meteorology emeritus and Penn State Distinguished Alumnus.
Latanision earned his bachelor of science degree in metallurgy from Penn State in 1964 and his doctorate from Ohio State in 1968. His research interests are focused largely in the areas of materials processing and in the corrosion of metals and other materials in environments – ambient as well as high temperature and pressure.
Latanision has held many high-level academic and research positions throughout his career. He currently is a senior fellow at Exponent, an in-depth engineering and scientific consulting firm of 900 employees located in Natick, Massachusetts. For 27 years he was a professor at MIT where held joint faculty appointments in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Nuclear Engineering.
He served as a science adviser to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology and also served as a member of the Advisory Committee to the Massachusetts Office of Science and Technology, an executive branch office created to strengthen the Commonwealth’s science and technology infrastructure with emphasis directed toward future economic growth.
In June 2002, President George W. Bush appointed him a member of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, a position he still holds under President Barack Obama.
He has been member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) since 1985 and has served on more than 20 National Research Council and NAE Study Committees. He is the current editor in chief of The Bridge, the NAE quarterly publication.
Latanision’s excellence in scholarship, administrative leadership, and service to his profession, distinguish him as the 2014 Hosler Alumni Scholar.