Iowa State University
12-6-96

Contacts:
Mufit Akinc, Materials Science and Engineering, (515) 294- 0738
Teddi Barron, Engineering Communications, (515) 294-0262
Skip Derra, News Service, (515) 294-4917

AKINC IS NAMED CHAIR OF MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

AMES, Iowa -- Mufit Akinc has been appointed chair of Iowa State's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. His four-year appointment is effective Jan. 1, 1997.

Akinc has been a member of the department's faculty since 1981 and has served as interim chair since September 1995.

"We are pleased that Dr. Akinc will be a continuing member of the college's leadership team because his contributions to the department, college and university have already been substantial," said Engineering Dean James Melsa.

In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on ceramic materials and processing, Akinc conducts research in the areas of synthesis and processing of ceramic powders and fibers, processing of composite materials and intermetallics, and solid-liquid and solid-gas interactions in ceramic systems. Akinc also is a senior ceramic engineer at the Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory at ISU.

Akinc earned his bachelor's (1970) and master's (1973) degrees in chemistry from Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey, and his doctoral (1977) degree in ceramic engineering from Iowa State.

From 1977 to 1979, Akinc was a faculty member at Kansas State University, Manhattan. From 1979 to 1981, he served as department chair and assistant professor of applied chemistry at METU. He returned to ISU in 1981 as assistant professor of materials science and engineering and associate ceramic engineer at Ames Laboratory.

Akinc has written or co-written 120 technical articles and has given more than 60 invited presentations throughout North America, Europe and the Far East. He is the co-holder of five patents.

A ceramic science expert for the governments of Turkey and South Korea, Akinc also has been a consultant to the United Nations and to several companies. In 1996 Akinc was named a Fellow in the American Ceramic Society.

Akinc succeeds Krishna Vedula who left Iowa State to become dean of engineering at the University of Massachusetts- Lowell.

-30-