As the Chair of the IMS Sorby Award Selection Committee (SASC), it is my great pleasure to announce Professor Sir Colin Humphreys as the 2017 Henry Clifton Sorby Awardee and congratulate him on his achievement.
As our 42nd awardee, Humphreys is from Cambridge University (UK). He gained early international recognition for the development of a series of lectures to help in the public understanding of science. These were delivered—in Australia, Singapore, and the U.S.,—to live and media audiences ranging from school children, science ministers, and scientific gatherings of his peers. At Cambridge, his chief areas of interest are the development and understanding of GaN LEDs, advanced electron microscopy, and high temperature materials for aerospace applications. Prof. Humphreys was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (1994), a Fellow of the Royal Society (2011), and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for Services to Science in 2010.
To be nominated for the Sorby Award, an individual must be over the age of 55, be an internationally recognized figure in the fields of metallography and materials science, and must be living. Early recipients included Cyril Stanley Smith (UK), remembered for his pioneering work in nuclear metallurgy and contributions to the Manhattan Project; Len Samuels (AU) for work on fundamentals of metallography and the microstructure of steels; Gunter Petzow (DE) for development of ceramography and properties of ceramics; Dan Albrecht (US) for lifetime contributions to metallography; T.R. Anantharaman (IN) for work on metallic glasses and rapidly solidified alloys; and Walter Mannheimer (BR), for research in electric power materials.
I want to express my gratitude to the members of the SASC for their dedication and input in reviewing the nominations information. On behalf of IMS, let me also extend our thanks to Allan Lockley for his many years of service as Chair of SASC before me.
More details regarding Prof. Humphreys’ Sorby Award Lecture—to be presented at the MS&T meeting in Pittsburgh this coming October—will appear in a future issue of SlipLines. There is little doubt that his talk will be full of interest for all, with a glimpse into materials of the future. It will be one lecture not to be missed.
Chris Bagnall
Chair, IMS Henry Clifton Sorby Award Selection Committee
