Society Fellows

Willard A. Cutler

Dr. Willard A. Cutler is division vice president and commercial technology director at Corning Incorporated in Corning, New York.

Cutler holds a Ph.D. in materials from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a BS in materials science & engineering from the University of Utah.

Cutler has worked for Corning for ~35 years in various research, product development, commercial, and leadership roles in Europe and the U.S. He has successfully delivered several new ceramic-based products to the market. He is currently responsible for customer-facing technology for Corning’s large ceramics business which provides ceramics-based substrates and filters to remove pollution from vehicles, worldwide. In addition, he leads Corning’s Environmental Futures effort to create new ceramic-based businesses in the adjacent opportunities of clean air (carbon capture, cabin air, etc.) and clean energy (batteries, green hydrogen, etc.).

Cutler has been awarded 22 patents and has published several scientific papers and edited a book. He served for 8 years on the board of Cormetech Incorporated. He has significant experience at the intersection of commercial and technology with experience in ceramic-based product design and particular expertise in pollution control and in highly porous ceramic materials and low-expansion ceramic materials. He has been a member of ACerS since 1988 and is a member of the basic science division.

He is delighted to be involved in opportunities to grow additional opportunities for ceramics. He is particularly interested in the technical-economic opportunities in carbon capture and new energy possibilities of thin, ion conducting ceramics.

Navin Manjooran

Dr. Navin Manjooran currently serves as the chairman of Solve, a technology and research services company addressing energy, industry, medical, and infrastructure challenges. Over the past decade, he was on the global leadership team of Siemens AG with oversight for international collaborations, advanced technologies, and innovation. Since 2010, Manjooran has served as a professor adjunct in materials science and engineering at Virginia Tech University and is a board member of the U.S. Technology Advisory Group. Manjooran also serves as chair of the board for the materials science and engineering department and the college of engineering at the University of Florida. He has also served on several boards including the Virginia Tech University Board of Visitors, University of Chicago Board of Trustees, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) energy initiative board and Virginia Tech Capital Campaign, apart from serving on several company boards. Dr. Manjooran is the Senior Vice President, Board of Trustees member and Fellow of ASM International. He will serve as the President of ASM International in 2024-25.

He holds a B.Tech. in metallurgical engineering from the National Institute of Technology (Warangal, India), an M.S. in materials science and engineering from the University of Florida, and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Virginia Tech. He also has an MBA from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago and his executive management education from Harvard University. Manjooran has 12 patents/disclosures, 12 books, and >200 publications/ presentations at national and international events. He has taught multiple courses and co-organized >35 international symposia for the National Institute of Technology (India), University of Florida, Virginia Tech, and various professional societies including ASM International, ACerS, AIST, ASME, IEEE, and TMS. His awards include: Outstanding University of Florida Alumni (MSE), Outstanding Indian American (Engineering) Award, Distinguished Virginia Tech (ISA) Alumnus, TMS Young Leader Award, VT Outstanding Leader Award, VT Paul Torgersen Doctoral Research Excellence Award, VT Outstanding Service Commendation Award, VT Outstanding Student Award, NITW Sri Kabadi Subalu Medal, and the NITW Alumni Association Gold Medal.

Dr. Manjooran is based at Windermere, Florida. He enjoys tennis, golf and water sports in his free time.

Gerard Louis Vignoles

Gerard Louis Vignoles, 60, Professor of University of Bordeaux is Head of the ThermoStructural Composites Lab (LCTS, a joint unit with CNRS, CEA and the Safran Group) in Pessac, near Bordeaux, France, and of the CNRS National Research Group GDR “Ceramic-Matrix Composites: Characterization, Modeling, Conception (CMC)²”.

Graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure (rue d’Ulm, Paris), he joined LCTS at its beginning as a PhD student. After his defense in 1993, awarded by several French prizes, he has been hired as Assistant Professor of the Bordeaux University; in 2003 he became full Professor; in 2016 he was appointed head of LCTS and in 2019 of GDR (CMC)². During 30+ years he has developed and maintained there an activity covering image-based physicochemical modelling of the fabrication and behavior in use of thermo-structural composite materials, supervising and co-supervising 30+ PhDs, mostly industry-funded. He has been or is the PI of several National and Regional projects and WP leader of European projects. He has developed several software tools for the modeling of Chemical Vapor Infiltration, of ablation of carbon-based composites and also a new numerical method for 3D image-based generalized heat transfer modeling.

Editor of the Journal of the European Ceramic Society, he has authored 173 papers and has a h-index of 34 (Scopus). Mostly interested in Advanced and Engineering Ceramics, he organizes regularly Symposia in ICACC, CMCEE, GFMAT and PacRim conferences; he received the ACerS Global Ambassador Award in 2020 and a HT-CMC Award for Global Leadership, due to his strong involvement in organizing this triennial conference series. He currently focuses on broadening the scope of CMC applications and the variety of modeling methods needed to develop these materials.

Kevin Huang

Kevin Huang is currently a South Carolina SmartState Endowed professor and director at University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA. He received his PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Science and Technology Beijing in 1992. After his PhD study, he joined Prof. John B. Goodenough’s group as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin in 1995. After 5 years, he joined Siemens Energy as a senior engineer in 2000 and was promoted to the rank of fellow engineer by 2008. In 2010, he joined the University of South Carolina as an associate professor and was promoted to full professor in 2015 and to the current endowed professorship in 2018. Over his research career, he has published 270 peer-reviewed journal articles, 3 books, 4 book chapters and 14 patents. His primary research areas include batteries, fuel cells, membranes, and modeling. He was the recipient of 2023 Class Fellow of International Association of Advanced Materials, and numerous university’s awards including: 2018 Breakthrough Leadership in Research Award, 2017 Educational Foundation Award for Research in Science, Mathematics and Engineering, 2015 College of Engineering and Computing Research Achievement Award, and 2014 University of South Carolina Breakthrough Stars.

Kevin Huang has been an active ACerS member since 2010 in the division of Basic Science, Electronics and Energy Materials and Systems, and Carolina chapter.

Kevin Huang is currently working on high-temperature solid oxide electrolytic cells for hydrogen production, carbon capture and conversion membrane reactors for decarbonization and rechargeable aqueous Zinc-ion batteries for stationary energy storage.

Min Wang

Min Wang is a full professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) since 2008. He earned BSc (1985) and PhD (1991) degrees, both in Materials Science and Engineering, at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, and University of London, U.K., respectively. He has worked in universities in the UK (1991-1997), Singapore (1997-2002) and Hong Kong (2002-Present). He joined HKU in 2003, served as Programme Director of its interfaculty Medical Engineering Programme in 2013-2018 and is currently a member of HKU’s Senate (https://meweb.hku.hk/~memwang). Dr.Wang started biomaterials research in 1991 and his research interests include biomedical materials, tissue engineering, controlled release/delivery of drugs/biomolecules/genes/cells, and bionanotechnology. He has conducted seminal research on bioactive ceramic-polymer composites for human hard tissue repair and is a leader in biomedical composite research internationally; he has performed pioneering research on 3D printing of novel tissue engineering scaffolds; and he has made outstanding contributions to the research of bioceramics, bioactive and protective ceramic coatings, and combination devices. Dr.Wang’s publications include over 200 journal articles, 25 book chapters and 660 abstracts/papers in conference proceedings. He has given over 200 invited/keynote/plenary talks at conferences in Western Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. He actively participates in ACerS-organized activities and conferences. He has won many awards and is a fellow (FBSE, FAIMBE, FRSC, etc.) of several professional societies. Dr.Wang is/was an Editor/Associate Editor of several journals (Progress in Materials Science, Journal of the Korean Ceramics Society, etc.) and serves/served in the Editorial Board of over 20 international journals. He is/was an elected Council Member of Chinese Society for Biomaterials, International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering, etc.

Kang Lee

Dr. Kang Lee joined NASA Glenn Research Center in 1990 after postdoctoral training at University of Pennsylvania. He began his research on Environmental Barrier Coatings (EBC) for SiC and made the first major break-through by developing a new durable mullite coating by 1994. He subsequently led the EBC development for SiC/SiC Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMC), which resulted in the first and second generation EBCs in late 1990s – early 2000s. These EBCs enabled successful CMC components engine tests through 2000s, culminating in the insertion of a CMC component in a GE-CFM international commercial engine in 2016. He became an international authority in the field of EBCs by early 2000s. He moved to Rolls-Royce in 2005 to start the EBC program and delivered the first Rolls-Royce EBC by 2018. This EBC was applied on CMC vanes in an engine and successfully tested in 2010. He was promoted to a Rolls-Royce Associate Fellow in recognition of the success. Under his leadership, Rolls-Royce EBC technology was elevated from ~10 years behind other engine companies to a competitive level by the time he left the Company in 2016. Since returning to NASA in 2016, he led the next generation EBC R&D, resulting in two new EBCs: Modified second generation EBC with >10x oxidation life (US patent pending) and an ultra-high temperature EBC comprising a 1480C-capable oxide-based bond coat (US patent awarded). One license agreement has been signed and a second license agreement is in process. Besides his technical leadership, he has made impactful contributions to the ceramics community by developing and mentoring people (4 PhDs and 4 Postdocs) and to the ACerS by organizing conference symposiums and delivering invited lectures.

Lalit Kumar Sharma

Dr. Lalit Kumar Sharma obtained his M.Tech (Materials Tech) and Ph.D. degree in Ceramic Engineering from IIT-BHU, Varanasi in 1984 & 1989 subsequently. He did his short term course on managerial skills for Technical Personnel from NITIE, Mumbai. He developed Nitride bonded Silicon Carbide Refractory Products thru Vibro Pressing, Multitampering, Slip Casting and Solid casting techniques for non-ferrous industries, Honey-Comb Cordierite Kiln Furniture for Ceramic Tableware industries, Energy Efficient Ceramic Coatings, Refractory Castables & monolithic, Energy Efficient Kilns development, Low Thermal Mass Refractory Kiln Furniture Designing, Development of Ultra Low Density Refractory Granules, Development of Alumina Heat Sinks for LED Bulbs, Ceramic Cook wares development and establishing common facilities centers in different regions of India for Terracotta Potters. He implemented 5S, ISO-9000, ISO-14000 and Best Safety Practices in manufacturing sector. After serving industry till 2004, he moved to CSIR Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute-KC, Khurja as Scientist-in-Charge in 2004. He is presently Chief Scientist and Scientist in Charge. He got a prestigious Project sanctioned from GMKRIT for training in terracotta field for CGCRI-NC, Ahmedabad under his Scientist-in-Charge period in 2019.

Dr Sharma has delivered Technical and Managerial skills lectures in IITs, NITs,
Universities (Gulbarga, Meerut, Kanpur, BHU, Indus, Nirma & Thapar), Management Institutes (BIMTech, G.L Bajaj Institute of Management & Business School of Delhi), Govt. Polytechnics (South & North India), Industries (Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals, DCM, Kajaria Ceramics, Bharat Potteries, Clay Craft, Bikaner Mines Association, Orient-Bell, NTPC, PCRA, KVIC, Asian Ceramics & Ceramics Asia Shows & Sun Earth Ceramics). He visited Spain for technology transfer, China (as Leader of UNIDO delegation), Japan for invited lectures in Kurashiki, Yokohama National University and Tokyo Institute of Technology, Thailand for invited talk from Thai Ceramic Society, USA for Invited talk from The American Ceramic Society (Daytona Beach), NASA (Cleveland), Ohio Aerospace Institute (Cleveland), Argonne National Laboratory (Chicago) and MS&T (Salt Lake City).

Dr Sharma is the Former Chairman of White-ware Committee of Bureau of Indian
Standards, Former Vice President of Indian Institute of Ceramics, Former Chairman of Global Corporate Achievement Award Committee of The American Ceramic Society, Former Jt. Secretary and Vice President of the Indian Ceramic Society, Life Member of ICS and AIPMA.

Dr Sharma is the recipient of several prestigious awards: Global Star Award of The American Ceramic Society, Global Ambassador Award of The American Ceramic Society, Industrial Service Award of Rotary Club of India, Shubham Shree Award in U.P State, Professor Sasadhar Ray Memorial Award to CGCRI-KC and recently Corporate Environment Achievement Award of The American Ceramic Society for CGCRI-KC forward energy field for 2020 (First Ever Award to India).

Dr Sharma has so many research and technical publications in Scientific & Engineering Journals as well as has published 7 books for Whiteware industries. His team efforts on Energy Saving Aspects for Ceramic Industries were published in the form a Book by PCRA- Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas in 2013. He and his team has established Common Facility Centers for Potters in Khurja, Bareilly, Bijnor and Varanasi in U.P, Garhfuljhar, Surajpur and Narigaon in Chattisgarh, Sasaram in Bihar. One CFC is approved to be established in Agartala-Tripura and Bhadrawati (Maharashtra). He has established following in the CGCRI-KC campus:

• DST Centre for Waste Utilization & Minimization
• UNIDO Energy Management Centre & Pottery Glass Design Centre

He is presently Chairman of Indian Ceramic Society – Western U.P. Chapter (Till Mar, 2021), Chairperson of India Chapter of The American Ceramic Society, Fellow of Indian Institute of Ceramics and President of Indian Ceramic Society (2021-22).

Emanuel Ionescu

Emanuel Ionescu has been Deputy Director and Head of the Department “Digitalization of Resources” at Fraunhofer IWKS, Germany as well as an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Materials and Earth Sciences of TU Darmstadt. From April 2014 to September 2015, he held a substitute professorship at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Cologne.

Emanuel Ionescu studied chemistry and physics at the University of Bucharest and the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany and received his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Bonn, Germany, in 2005. In 2015, he accomplished his Habilitation at TU Darmstadt and received the venia legendi.

Emanuel Ionescu has been a member of the American Ceramic Society (ACerS) and served from 2018 to 2021 as Secretary of the Rhein Ceramics Chapter Germany of the American Ceramic Society. He has been moreover Member of the European Ceramic Society (ECErS), German Ceramic Society (DKG), German Society for Materials Science (DGM), and the Society of German Chemists (GdCh). He serves as Editor of the Journal of the European Ceramic Society and as Associate Editor for International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology and Materials Letters.

Emanuel Ionescu authored and co-authored more than 160 scientific papers, 2 books and more 10 book chapters. His scientific background and interests are generally related to (inorganic) materials synthesis and processing, and in particular to the development of advanced ceramics and (nano)composites with tailored compositions, morphologies, microstructures and property profiles. Additionally, he addresses research aspects related to circular economy of materials, process digitalization and modelling, sustainability assessment.

In 2022, he was awarded the Global Star Award by the American Ceramic Society.

Victoria L. Blair

Dr. Victoria L. Blair is a Research Materials Engineer serving DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL), at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. She received her BS in ceramic engineering and PhD in ceramics from Alfred University (New York State College of Ceramics) in 2008 and 2014, respectively. Dr. Blair joined ARL as a post-doctoral fellow in June 2014 before serving the Ceramics and Transparent Materials Branch for seven years as a staff scientist, leading research programs on the synthesis and processing of infrared (IR) transparent ceramics for optical and photonic applications. In 2020, Dr. Blair earned the ARL Early Career Award, which is awarded to exceptional scientists at the onset of their career and included financial support to kick off a new research program focusing on IR window materials development. In 2021, Dr. Blair earned the Du-Co Ceramics Young Professional Award and the Robert L. Coble Award for Young Scholars, which are annual awards for young professionals from the American Ceramic Society. Dr. Blair currently serves as the Super Materials Portfolio Manager in the Sciences of Extreme Materials Division, where she develops intra- and extramural research strategies for the Army.

Jie Zhang

Dr. Jie Zhang is a Principal Investigator of Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science and Institute of Metal Research (IMR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China. She received a Ph.D. in material science from Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences. She worked as postdoctoral Researcher in RWTH Aachen University in Germany on Materials Chemistry. Her research is focused on advanced ceramics and coatings for extreme environment applications, and she has dedicated herself to the fundamental understanding and development of novel ceramics and coatings. Her recent works include integrated design of ceramic coatings for accident tolerant nuclear fuel, multifunctional thermal/environmental barrier coatings, advanced irradiation-resistant ceramics for Generation IV nuclear reactors, as well as high-throughput screening approaches of advanced ceramics for high temperature applications. She has published over 75 peer-reviewed SCI papers (H-index factor 28), generated 15 patents in the field of advanced ceramics and coatings, presented over 20 keynote or invited talks. She is internationally recognized for her contributions to the advancement of scientific research and technological innovation of ceramic coatings and materials.

Dr. Zhang has mentored young researchers and students in ACerS, has served as a member of Executive Committee of Engineering Ceramic Division since 2021, and now as Chair-elect of ECD. She worked as a committee member of the John Jeppson Award (2019-23, 2022-23 Chair). She has served as an organizer for “Advanced MAX/MXENE Phases and UHTC Materials for Extreme and High Temperature Environment” symposium series in ECD’s ICACC meetings since 2019, “Global Young Investigator Forum” symposium series in ACerS’s PacRim and CMCEE conferences. Most recently, she served as the program chair of ICACC’2024.

Klaus van Benthem

Klaus van Benthem joined the UC Davis faculty in 2008 after obtaining his Ph.D. from Germany and doing postdoctoral work at Oak Ridge. He has developed a world famous electron microscopy program centered on ceramic materials and interfaces. His renowned contributions reveal new atomic-scale mechanisms for defect evolution under externally applied stress fields, evolution of grain boundaries in electric field-assisted processing of ceramics, wetting-dewetting transitions of ultra-thin films, and in-situ manipulation and growth of nanostructures. van Benthem is a world-wide recognized expert in interface science and aberration-corrected (scanning) transmission electron microscopy (TEM). He is recognized for showing important mechanistic differences between “current-assisted” and “electric field assisted” processing in ceramics. Together with his students van Benthem revealed that fields directed along the bicrystal plane cause redistribution of oxygen vacancies in SrTiO3 result in different grain boundary core structures while the boundary’s misorientation remained unchanged. He has taught electron microscopy courses and all other undergraduate courses in materials science including ceramics.

Edward P. Gorzkowski, III

Edward P. Gorzkowski, III, is currently the Branch Head of the Multifunctional Materials Branch at the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington D.C. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Lehigh University in 1999 and 2004 respectively.  Edward started at NRL in 2004 as a NRC post-doc before joining the permanent staff as a materials research engineer.  He then served as Head of the Ceramics and Rapid Prototyping Section at NRL before being promoted to his current position in June 2020.

Edward is the current chair of the Electronics division of the American Ceramics Society as well as a member of Basic Science and Energy Materials and Systems Divisions and a founding member and previous co-chair of the Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia Section.  He co-organized the Electronic Materials and Applications (EMA) conference in 2022 and 2023 as well as a symposium organizer for sessions at EMA, MS&T and PacRim conferences both present and past.  He has also served on the ACerS Book sub-committee and former chair of the Young Professionals Network (YPN). He received the 2015 Du-Co Young Professionals Award from the American Ceramics Society, a 2018 Best Paper award for the Journal of American Ceramics Society, and a 2020 Richard M. Fulrath Award from the American Ceramics Society.

Edward has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed articles and proceedings, delivered over 30 invited talks (including plenary at international conferences), and served as a guest editor for a special issue of IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Journal.  He holds 8 Patents, two of which are under licensing agreement and have transitioned to the defense and commercial sector.

Edward is also active in TMS, ASM, Tau Beta Pi, US/Japan Seminar on Dielectric Materials, and DOD-related committees.  His research interests include piezoelectric materials for sensor and actuator applications; processing of dielectric and ferroelectric materials; unique processing methods to create bulk nano-structured ceramics including microwave, high pressure and aerosol deposition processing for functional and structural applications such as hypersonics, thermal barrier coatings and magnetic/dielectric devices.