The W. David Kingery Award recognizes distinguished lifelong achievements involving multidisciplinary and global contributions to ceramic technology, science, education and art. The award is open to all people worldwide. Winners receive a certificate, glass commemorative piece, and a $5,000 honorarium.
Nominees must be living at the time of their nomination. Nominees must demonstrate significant achievements in at least two of the following categories: technology, science, education or art.
Nomination Process
Nominees must be living at the time of their nomination. Nominees must demonstrate significant achievements in at least two of the following categories: technology, science, education or art. One nominator is required, plus two additional supporters who supply letters of recommendation. Nominations should consist of a letter and completed nomination form giving a full and complete statement of the reasons for proposing the candidate, with a record of the candidate’s professional and industrial achievements in sufficient detail to allow the committee to evaluate the nominee’s worthiness to receive the award. Nominations are active for a total of three years, but the person can then be re-nominated. One award can be given each year.
W. David Kingery (1926–2000) was a pioneering American materials scientist renowned for transforming ceramics from a craft-based practice into a rigorous scientific discipline. Educated at MIT, where he later became a professor, Kingery laid the theoretical foundation for the field of physical ceramics by applying principles of solid-state physics and crystallography. He developed quantitative models for ceramic properties and advanced processing techniques like sintering. His influential textbook, Introduction to Ceramics, became a cornerstone of ceramic science. Kingery also fostered interdisciplinary research, notably at the University of Arizona, and was honored with numerous awards, including the Kyoto Prize in 1999, recognizing him as the “father of modern ceramics.”
Contact
Erica Zimmerman
ezimmerman@ceramics.org
Award Winners
Carol A. Handwerker
Carol A. Handwerker is the Reinhardt Schuhmann, Jr. Professor of Materials Engineering and Professor of Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University. She is currently on leave from Purdue to the Department of Commerce where she is serving as the Head of Technology Strategy in the CHIPS Program Office in the Department of Commerce Before joining Purdue in 2005, she was at NIST for 21 years, serving as the co-lead for Advanced Packaging as well as the Chief of the NIST Metallurgy Division. Handwerker is currently leading a $40M, 5-year DoD program in facilitating the transition to Pb-free electronics in defense systems. She was the Director of the Purdue-Tuskegee NSF Integrative Education and Research Traineeship program (IGERT) on Globally Sustainable Electronics (supporting 28 two-year fellowships from 2012-2019), served as a member of the iNEMI Environmental Leadership Steering Committee, along with Intel, Dell, and Lenovo and co-led the iNEMI project on Value Recovery for End-of Life Electronics, with Seagate, Google, Microsoft, Cisco as team members. Handwerker received a BA in Art History Wellesley College, a B.S. in materials science and engineering and M.S., and Sc.D. in ceramic science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research areas include: developing innovative interconnect technologies for next-generation microelectronics and sustainable materials for thin film solar cells, improving the reliability of Pb-free solder interconnects, particularly for high performance, military, and aerospace electronic systems, integrating sustainability in the design of new electronic materials, processes, and products, identifying and implementing strategies to move R&D into manufacturing and commercialization, using roadmapping, techno-economic analysis, and formation of self-assembling socio-ecological systems, and controlling interface properties to design microstructures in polycrystalline materials and thin films.