Home PageHome Page
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) * Why not change the world?
Welcome to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Home About RPI Academics & Research Student Life Admission News & Information
*
*
*
* Current Issue Accolades Around Campus Events Calendar Campus.News Archives E-Mail Bulletin Sign-up *
* *
*
Campus.News for the Week of October 18, 2004 *
*
*
* Ajayan Appointed Henry Burlage Professor of Materials Science and Engineering

Rensselaer recently appointed Pulickel Ajayan as the Henry Burlage Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. Ajayan is the first person to hold this chair, and his achievement was recognized at Rensselaer's 11th annual Honors Convocation on Friday, Oct. 15.

Ajayan
Photo by Gary Gold
The professorship was established as a bequest by the late Henry Burlage Jr. '44 to honor the memory of his father. After earning B.S. and M.S. degrees in aeronautical engineering from Rensselaer, Burlage served as chief of liquid rocket research and technology at NASA, and then as director of engineering for A.C. Martin & Associates, consultants in architecture, engineering, land planning, and interior design.

Ajayan's research at Rensselaer focuses on the controlled growth of carbon nanotubes. He studies their structure and properties in relation to size and confinement and their potential in a range of applications, including composite materials, sensors, biomaterials, and microelectronics. Ajayan is also a recognized expert in electron microscopy.

Throughout his career, Ajayan has received numerous honors including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 1998, the Burton Award from the Microscopy Society of America in 1997, and the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship in 1995. Ajayan also was awarded the Presidential Student Award from the Electron Microscopy Society of America in 1989; the Hadfield Medal for Outstanding Metallurgist in Calcutta, India in 1985; and the Bachelor of Technology Gold Medal from Banaras Hindu University in 1985.

Ajayan is an editorial board member for several publications including Advanced Materials and the Journal of Science and Nanotechnology, and is a consultant for companies in the United States and Europe.

Ajayan earned a bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering from Banaras Hindu University in 1985 and doctorate in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University in 1989. He joined the Rensselaer faculty in 1997. He is a collaborator on nanotechnology research associated with Rensselaer's Center for Directed Assembly of Nanostructures, one of only six NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers in the United States.
 * *
*
*
  *Next  

Current Issue     Accolades     Around Campus     Events Calendar     Archives     E-Mail Bulletin Signup

Tell Us Your News
*

 
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 110 8th St., Troy, NY 12180. (518) 276-6000
Copyright © 1996–2003 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. All rights reserved worldwide.
Why not change the world?(SM) is a service mark of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Web site design by the Rensselaer Office of Communications.
Contact Jane Van Ryan, Assistant Vice President, Office of Communications

Questions? Comments? Please contact us.