The Edward Orton, Jr. Memorial Lecture is presented by the invited lecturer at the ACerS Annual Meeting/MS&T. The lecturer is to be noted for scholarly attainments in the ceramic or related field.
The nominee to be chosen should best represent the past tradition of the Orton Lecturer and provide the Society with a learned lecture at its Annual Meeting. The Lecturers should have national recognition in a field related to the interest of the membership of the Society. The Lecturer should be an accomplished speaker and communicate well to the mixed audience (members and visitors).
The awardee receives a certificate, $1,000 honorarium, and complimentary annual meeting registration.
Nomination Process
Nominations should include one (1) letter of nomination, a CV of up to ten (10) pages and no more than three (3) letters of support.
The choice of Lecturer may be from within or outside of the Society. The Committee on the Orton Memorial Lecture shall select the Orton Lecturer.
A past Orton Lecturer shall not be eligible to present a second Orton Lecture. To allow advance programming decisions, the nominee presented shall be for the award at the Annual Meeting one year subsequent to the Annual Meeting immediately following the Board decision.
Award Namesake
The lecture is named for benefactor and visionary General Edward Orton, Jr. who was a founder of The American Ceramic Society and started the first Ceramic Engineering education program in America at The Ohio State University in 1894.
Contact
Erica Zimmerman
ezimmerman@ceramics.org
Award Winners
Alexander Michaelis
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Alexander Michaelis is an internationally recognized materials scientist and research leader whose career spans academia, industry, and large-scale institute management. Since 2004 he has served as Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS) and W3 Professor/Chair of Inorganic Nonmetallic Materials at Technische Universität Dresden. Educated in physics and physical chemistry at Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf, he held an early faculty post at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before moving to microelectronics roles with Siemens/IBM/Toshiba’s DRAM Development Alliance, followed by leadership positions at Bayer AG, H.C. Starck GmbH, and as managing director of InDEC B.V. in solid oxide fuel cells. At IKTS, Professor Michaelis has driven advances across electroceramics and energy systems, including SOFC/MCFC co generation, SOEC for green hydrogen and syngas, lithium ion and solid state batteries, ceramic membranes for gas separation and water purification, and hybrid manufacturing that couples 3D additive processes with 2D thick film functionalization. These efforts have seeded spin outs and first of kind demonstrations, such as integrated co electrolysis–Fischer–Tropsch pilot concepts and ceramic membrane oxygen generation for medical ventilation.
He has authored 450+ peer reviewed publications and holds 42 patent families, reflecting sustained innovation at the materials–systems interface. His professional service includes presidencies of the German Ceramic Society (DKG) and its research association (FDKG), membership on Saxony’s Energy and Climate Advisory Council, and supervisory roles across European industry and Fraunhofer entities. Among many distinctions, he is a Fellow of The American Ceramic Society and the European Ceramic Society, and recipient of honors including the Fraunhofer Medal, Rustum Roy Award, and Acta Materialia Hollomon Award for Materials and Society.