Dr. Richard C. Bradt, metallurgical and materials engineering professor emeritus at UA, has been named a Distinguished Life Member of the American Ceramic Society.
Selection as a Distinguished Life Member is considered the most prestigious level of membership in the society. Bradt is one of three people who will be given the designation in 2017.
The recognition is awarded to society members based on their outstanding contributions to the ceramics and glass profession, their achievements in the ceramic arts or sciences or their service to the society. To be named a life member, a person has to be nominated by a member and have two nomination sponsors. Distinguished Life Members are then elected by the society’s board of directors.
Bradt will be awarded this honor Oct. 9 at the ACerS Honors and Awards Banquet at the Materials Sciences and Technology 2017 Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Bradt joined the faculty at The University of Alabama College of Engineering in 1994 as head of the department of metallurgical and materials engineering. In 2003, Bradt was named the Alton N. Scott Professor of Materials Engineering. He retired in 2009, but he has remained an active researcher, speaker and educator.
With students and colleagues, he has published more than 450 papers and edited more than 20 conference proceedings. Bradt has given more than 70 invited international presentations, advised more than 100 graduate students and directed 50 doctoral dissertations.
A Fellow of both ACerS and the American Society for Materials, an Academician of the World Academy of Ceramics and a Distinguished Life Member of UNITECR, he has received more than 20 major awards including the prestigious Centennial Award of the Ceramic Society of Japan in 2000.
In 2013, he received the W.D. Kingery Award from ACerS, its highest technical honor. A member of the society for over 50 years, Bradt has held all of the offices of the Refractory Ceramics Division and is affiliated with the Basic Science and the Glass and Optical Materials Divisions.