The Richard M. Fulrath awards recognize 5 engineers/scientists who have promoted technical and personal friendships between Japanese and US scientists, highlighting the diverse cultures surrounding the Pacific Rim. The awards recognize the individuals for their excellence in research and development of ceramic materials.
The award recognizes researchers in their early to mid-careers.
Three awardees shall be from Japan – one from academia and two from industry. Two awardees shall be from the US – one from academia and one from industry.
Nomination Process
The awardees must be nominated by a nominator in a single page nomination letter.
The nominee must provide a statement of eligibility and a narrative biography.
The awardees will receive a certificate, $2,500 award (to each of the five awardees), and complimentary annual meeting registration. The awardees also have responsibilities that will be outlined when notified of their selection.
The award is named for Richard M. Fulrath (1924 – 1977) and was established by his friends in Japan. Dr. Fulrath was a Professor of Ceramic Engineering at University of California, Berkeley. Professor Fulrath made major contributions to the preparation of electrical ceramics with improved properties. His work made him well known and respected in in Japan. After he spent a sabbatical in Japan in 1974, he continued to develop collaborations and friendships with Japanese researchers. He presented more than 70 lectures in different university and industry labs and encouraged others to develop similar collaborations and friendships.
Contact
Erica Zimmerman
ezimmerman@ceramics.org
Award Winners
2025 US Industrial Awardee
Nathan (Nate) D. Orloff
Nathan (Nate) D. Orloff received the B.S. degree in physics with high honors and Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Maryland (UMD) at College Park, College Park, MD, USA, in 2004 and 2010, respectively. In 2014, he joined the Communications Technology Laboratory at NIST in Boulder Colorado. Dr. Orloff is currently the Project Leader of the Microwave Materials Project in the Communications Technology Laboratory at NIST in Boulder, Colorado. His research covers microwave materials metrology, materials-by-design for communications, microwave microfluidics, and bridging the gap between optical and microwave on-wafer measurement science. Dr. Orloff is the recipient of the 2025 Richard M. Fulrath award, the 2022 Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for advances in dielectric measurements, and the 2019 Karl Schwartzwalder-Professional Achievement in Ceramic Engineering Award. He has published around 100 proceedings and peer-reviewed articles. He holds multiple U.S. Patents including patents on measuring material properties in roll-to-roll manufacturing, on scanning microwave ellipsometry for anisotropic materials like carbon fiber, Bayesian calibrations algorithms, and wafer-level calibration standards.
2025 US Academic Awardee
Lane W. Martin
Lane W. Martin is the Robert A. Welch Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Chemistry, and Physics and Astronomy and the inaugural Director of the Rice Advanced Materials Institute at Rice University. He also maintains an appointment as a Faculty Senior Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Lane received his B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University in Dec. 2003 and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2006 and 2008, respectively, all in Materials Science and Engineering. From 2008 to 2009, Lane served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Quantum Materials Program, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. From 2009 to 2014, Lane was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Lane returned to the University of California, Berkeley as an Associate Professor from 2014-2018. He was promoted to Professor in July 2018 and served as Vice/Associate Chair from 2018-2021. From 2021 to 2023, Lane was a Chancellor’s Professor and Chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and served as both the Secretary and Chair (elected) of the Faculty of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Lane has published >310 papers, his work has been cited ~35,000 times (resulting in an h-index = 84; i10-index = 250), and he has given >200 invited/plenary/keynote talks. Lane’s work has garnered a number of awards including being named a Fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS, 2024), the American Ceramics Society (ACerS, 2023), and the American Physical Society (APS, 2022), is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE, 2025), was selected to the 2022-2024 Defense Science Study Group, is a multiple-time Highly Cited Researcher (ranked in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in Web of Science), was awarded the IEEE-Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control (UFFC) Society Ferroelectrics Young Investigator Award (2019), the Robert L. Coble Award for Young Scholars from the American Ceramic Society (2016), the American Association for Crystal Growth (AACG) Young Author Award (2015), the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2014), the Dean’s Award for Research Excellence for the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2013), the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2012), the Army Research Office Young Investigator Program Award (2010), and others.
2025 Japanese Academic Awardee
Takashi Teranishi
Dr. Takashi Teranishi received his B.S. (2004) and M.S. (2006) from Tokyo Institute of Technology, and joined FUJIFILM Corporation, where he worked on the development of semiconductor photoresists. He earned his Ph.D. in Engineering from Tokyo Tech in 2010. During this period, he conducted research on thermoelectric ferroelectrics as a visiting researcher in Prof. Clive Randall’s group at Pennsylvania State University in 2009. He joined Okayama University as an Assistant Professor in 2010, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018, and to Research Professor in 2024. At Okayama University, he has focused on expanding the application of ferroelectric/dielectric materials to battery technologies. Since 2021, he has also held a concurrent position as a Specially Appointed Associate Professor at Institute of Science Tokyo. His research interests include ferroelectrics, ion conductors and battery materials.
2025 Japanese Industrial Awardee
Satoshi Mori
Satoshi Mori, Ph.D. earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in the life science and applied chemistry from Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan 2006 and 2008, respectively, and Ph.D. degree in electronic chemistry from Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan 2018. He began his Niterra career in 2008.
2025 Japanese Industrial Awardee
Shota Daiki
Dr. Daiki is a manager in the Thermal Management Application Dept. in New Business Center Division of Tokuyama Corporation in Japan. His research interests include development of high performance BN powder and their applications.