[Image above] Richard Lehman (right), professor at Rutgers University, presents the Malcolm G. McLaren Distinguished Lecture award to Helen M. Chan (left), professor at Lehigh University. Credit: ACerS
On April 10, 2026, the ACerS New Jersey/Metro New York/Philadelphia Section held its annual event in conjunction with the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Rutgers University and the Ceramic Association of New Jersey (CANJ). The event was the Malcolm G. McLaren Symposium. This annual event recognizes a distinguished member of the ceramics community. This year the awardee was Helen M. Chan, a professor of materials science and engineering at Lehigh University. The theme of the Symposium was “Entropy – The Secret Sauce in Materials Engineering”. Chan concluded the Symposium with her talk “Novel Processing of Entropy Stabilized and Compositionally Complex Materials.”
Other speakers were Ryan Sillls, Rutgers University, whose talk was “High entropy fracture: Towards high toughness ceramics”, Tim Rupert, Johns Hopkins University, whose talk was “Using entropy to stabilize unique (and useful) grain boundary states”, and Jeffrey Rickman, Lehigh University, whose talk was “The role of entropy and complexity in materials Science: Microstructure and properties.”
[Image above] Awards were given for the best poster presentations by high school students representing eight school districts. Ahmad Safari, a professor at Rutgers University, announced the poster awards for undergraduates and graduate students. They were joined by Ahmad Safari, Deirdre O’Carroll, Ryan Sills, Ashutosh Goal and Lisa Klein. Credit: ACerS
[Images above] Over 125 alumni, faculty, students, and Section members filled the auditorium and were treated to interesting talks and lively Q&A. During the coffee break, Prof. Koray Akdogan, our Undergraduate Program Director, announced the Undergraduate Scholarships. Credit: ACerS
