Alfred University News

Former NYSCC Dean James McCauley to deliver John F. McMahon Memorial Lecture

James W. McCauley, former dean and professor of ceramic engineering in the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, will deliver the John F. McMahon Memorial Lecture at 11:20 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, in Holmes Auditorium, Harder Hall, on the Alfred University campus.


McCauley served as dean (SUNY unit head) and professor of ceramic engineering at the NYSCC from 1990-96 and is retired from the U.S. Army Research Lab (ARL), where he served as chief scientist (ST) for Advanced Materials. He is currently adjunct research scientist in the Johns Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute.

In his lecture, McCauley will discuss the Materials in Extreme Dynamic Environments (MEDE) program managed at Johns Hopkins University in collaboration with the Army Research Laboratory,” which he conceived and initiated. The Center for Materials in Extreme Dynamic Environments (CMEDE) is a multi-institution collaborative research center housed within the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute at Johns Hopkins University. The Center brings together academia, industry, and the ARL to address fundamental science issues in materials in extreme dynamic environments through a highly collaborative effort: the Materials in Extreme Dynamic Environments (MEDE) Collaborative Research Alliance (CRA).

McCauley earned his B.S. in geology (minors in mathematics, chemistry, religion, and philosophy) from St. Joseph's College, Indiana, in 1961, and both his M.S. (1965) in mineralogy and petrology (geochemistry) and Ph.D. (1968) in solid state science (crystallography) from The Pennsylvania State University. He also completed an Executive MBA program at Northeastern University.

In 1968, he began a 22-year tenure at the Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center in Watertown, MA, starting as a research scientist. He rose to become the founder and Division Chief of the Materials Characterization Division before leaving for Alfred University in 1990. During his time at Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center, he also served as Liaison Scientist, in the Army Research Office, Tokyo, Japan, and as an adjunct professor at Boston University.

After leaving Alfred University in 1996, McCauley went to the ARL in 1997, retiring in 2013 from his executive position as the Army's Chief Scientist (ST) for Advanced Materials. He has been an Adjunct Research Scientist in the Johns Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute (HEMI) since 2014.

McCauley is the past chair of the Army's Chief Scientists and the ARL Fellows. In addition, Dr. McCauley was honored by Penn State University as an MRL Distinguished Alumni, a Centennial Fellow of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and the 2011 Charles L. Hosler Alumni Scholar. He is a Past President, Fellow, and Distinguished Life Member of the American Ceramic Society (Acers’). He has published a total of 142 papers, edited or co-edited 13 books and has five patents. His publications have been cited over 5,000 times.

The John F. McMahon Memorial Lecture Award is presented annually to an outstanding ceramic engineer. The award was created by alumni in honor of the late John F. McMahon, an alumnus, a professor and finally, dean of what is now the Inamori School of Engineering.