Inamori School of Engineering celebrates life, work of Samuel Scholes with Scholes Lecture

Alfred University’s Inamori School of Engineering Thursday hosted the Samuel R. Scholes Lecture. The event featured lectures by Liping Huang, professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs in the School of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Alastair Cormack, Van Derck Frechette Professor of Ceramic Science and Founding Dean of the Inamori School of Engineering.

Their lectures, respectively: “Glass under Pressure” and “Disorder in Ceramics and Glass – An Atom’s Eye View.”

The Inamori School of Engineering also honored engineering student Jared Kantak with the Scholes Scholar Award, an annual honor presented to the engineering student who has the highest grade-point average at the end of their freshman year.

In addition to delivering their lectures, Cormack and Huang received Scholes Lecturer Awards from Gabrielle Gaustad '04, dean of the Inamori School of Engineering. They were joined by Bill LaCourse, retired Kruson Distinguished Professor of Glass Science at Alfred University, who will deliver the Scholes Lecture in the Fall.

The Scholes Lecture celebrates the life and work of Samuel Scholes, who served for more than 40 years as dean, associate dean, head of the Department of Glass Technology, and professor of glass science at Alfred University. Scholes established the first glass science program in the United States at the University’s College of Ceramics in 1932. Also a poet, Scholes described glass as the “eye of science, the carrier of light.”

Pictured in photo: Liping Huang, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs in the School of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Alastair Cormack, Van Derck Frechette Professor of Ceramic Science and Founding Dean of the Inamori School of Engineering; Bill LaCourse, Kruson Distinguished Professor of Glass Science; and Gabrielle Gaustad, Dean of the Inamori School of Engineering. Huang, Cormack, and LaCourse are receiving honors as Samuel R. Scholes Lecturers.