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RENOWNED SCHOLAR TO HEAD MSE PROGRAM

 

Richard Alan LeSar Professor

Dr. Mark J. Kushner, Dean of the College of Engineering, has announced the appointment of Richard Alan LeSar as chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University. Dr. LeSar will assume his responsibilities August 1, in time for the start of the fall term at Iowa State.

“Dr. LeSar is a world renowned scholar who will bring not only his administrative and educational expertise to Iowa State, but also his substantial research activities,” said Kushner in announcing LeSar’s appointment to the College of Engineering.

Currently a Technical Staff Member (TSM) in the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory, LeSar earned his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan in 1975, followed by an A.M. in Physics in 1977 and a PhD in Chemical Physics in 1981, both from Harvard University. He did his postdoctoral work at Los Alamos after leaving Harvard and, in 1983, joined the Los Alamos staff as TSM in a series of positions, including work in condensed matter and statistical physics and materials science.

An expert in the development and application of computational methods to problems in materials, LeSar has served in numerous leadership positions at Los Alamos, as well as service as an adjunct professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, among other academic appointments. He has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous review articles and book chapters, and has been a frequent invited speaker at symposia and conferences both in the U.S. and abroad. In addition, he has served on advisory boards for the U.S. Air Force and in an editorial capacity with leading materials science journals, including his recent appointment to a second five-year term on the editorial board of the Annual Review of Materials Research.

LeSar assumes leadership of MSE from Dr. Mufit Akinc, who will return full time to research and teaching after leading the department for 11 years. LeSar inherits a department that has enjoyed unprecedented growth and success under Akinc, more than doubling enrollments and leading the College of Engineering in externally funded research grants.

A strong proponent of collaborative and multidisciplinary research and teaching, LeSar

lauds “MSE’s recent efforts to diversify its research portfolio from the strong programs in metals and ceramics that were the genesis of the current department to include polymers and electronic materials. This,” he adds, “places MSE in a good position to attack current materials problems as well as future ones.”