Subhash Risbud receives ACerS W. David Kingery Award
By Constanze Ditterich
Materials science and engineering distinguished professor Subhash Risbud was honored with the American Ceramic Society’s W. David Kingery Award, which recognizes distinguished lifelong achievements with a multidisciplinary, global impact on ceramic technology, science, education and art.
Since 1998, the American Ceramic Society (ACerS) presents this award annually to a member in honor of extraordinary professional and industrial achievements in ceramics who are internationally respected by the community. Risbud joins a number of highly-regarded ceramics scholars from every part of the world who have received this prestigious award.
“I am honored to be in their company now,” he said.
This award has a special meaning for Risbud, since David Kingery was his colleague for three years at the University of Arizona in Tucson after Kingery moved from MIT. Kingery, along with the Pask-Fulrath-Searcy trio at UC Berkeley, are pioneers in the field of ceramics, and Risbud gratefully recalls many years of advice and friendship from every one of them.
In 1990 Risbud came to UC Davis and joined the Division of Materials Science and Engineering in the Department of Mechanical, Aeronautical and Materials Engineering. In 1993, he became vice-chair of the newly formed Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science which he chaired from 1996 until 2002. In 2009, he received the Blacutt-Underwood Endowed Professorship in Materials Science, and, in 2014, he was elected to be an Academician (Science) by the World Academy of Ceramics. He is renowned for his teaching, and he received the Engineers’ Council’s Distinguished Educator award last year, the College of Engineering’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 2005 and the Academic Senate’s Distinguished Graduate/Professional Teaching Award in 2008.
ACerS has over 11,000 members from more than 70 countries, and its core mission is to advance the study, understanding, and use of ceramic and related materials for the benefit of its members and society.
Risbud will receive the award at ACerS’s annual meeting from October 4 – 8 in Pittsburgh, PA.