UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Allison Beese, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, received the 2018 Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) AIME Robert Lansing Hardy Award for exceptional promise in the field of mechanics of metallic materials and in particular, the advancement of mechanical metallurgy understanding in additive manufacturing.
“I am deeply honored to receive this award and to be joining this prestigious group of scientists and engineers,” Beese said. “I am grateful to my nominators, mentors, colleagues and students. Active involvement in TMS has been an immensely rewarding experience, one which has provided me with opportunities to interact with a wonderful, talented community of colleagues, to take on leadership roles in the society, and to develop a strong professional network.”
Beese has been lauded before as a promising scientist early in her career.
“I am incredibly honored by the external recognition I have received,” Beese said. “The best part of my job is the strong collaborative effort of working closely with graduate students, undergraduate students and colleagues inside and outside of Penn State to make advances in research. Collaborative research is exciting and important because it allows people to tackle bigger, more complex and more interesting problems than a single group can address independently, and to come up with creative solutions.”
Beese’s group focuses on identifying the effect of microstructure and internal defects on macroscopic mechanical behavior, namely deformation and fracture. Some of her current research projects are working on studying this linkage in materials formed through additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing. Understanding the impact of internal defects is key to being able to use additive manufacturing methods in load-bearing applications such as in aerospace, energy and biomedical industries. Her group also researches the fabrication of components with graded compositions, toward the design and manufacture of multifunctional components.
Established by Arthur C. Hardy, this award is in memory of his son, Robert Lansing Hardy, a young man of great promise in the field of physical metallurgy and a junior member of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME), who died suddenly at age 25. This award recognizes a young person, under the age of 35, in the broad fields of metallurgy or materials science for his or her exceptional promise of a successful career. It is funded by AIME, with donations by Ford Motor Co. through the TMS Foundation.
Beese received the award on March 14 at the TMS 2018 Annual Meeting and Exhibition. TMS is a professional society that connects minerals, metals, and materials scientists and engineers who work in industry, academia and government positions around the world.