Lynn A. Boatner (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Lynn A. Boatner - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Lynn Boatner is an ORNL Corporate Fellow and Battelle Distinguished Inventor in the Materials Science and Technology Division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he is the Director of the ORNL Center for Radiation Detection Materials and Systems. He also leads the ORNL Synthesis and Properties of Novel Materials Group. He received a PhD in physics from Vanderbilt University in 1966 and joined the ORNL Solid State Division in 1977, after a multi-year research appointment at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland. Boatner is a Fellow of: the Materials Research Society, the American Physical Society (APS), The American Ceramic Society, the Mineralogical Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, ASM International, and the Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining of the UK. He is the author or co-author of more than 550 research articles and currently holds eighteen U.S. Patents. He has received a number of awards for his research, including: R&D 100 Awards in 2010, 1996, 1985, and 1982; The DuBose-Crouse Award for Unique, Unusual, and New Techniques in Microscopy presented by the International Metallographic Society and ASM International, (2009); The AACG Crystal Growth Award of the American Association for Crystal Growth, (2003); the Frank H. Spedding Award for Excellence in Rare Earth Research, (2002); a U.S. Department of Energy Research Competition Award in 1984; recognition as one of Science Digest's 100 Top Innovators in 1985; a Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer in 1997; The Elegant Work Prize of the Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining of the United Kingdom in 1997; and the Jacquet-Lucas Award of ASM International and the International Metallographic Society in 1988. In 1998, he was named a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of Mexico.
Boatner has been active in a wide range of MRS activities since 1982. He served as the Executive Secretary of the Society and a member of the MRS Executive Committee from 1992 to 1993. He made early contributions to the initial establishment of the MRS Corporate Affiliates Program and served as the Chair of the Corporate Affiliates Committee during its formative period. Boatner played one of the leading roles in the initial establishment of the Equipment-Vendor Exhibits at the MRS meetings – initially working and coordinating with the APS in order to utilize their experience and organization before the MRS assumed full responsibility for this activity. He served as a General Meeting Co-Chair for the Fall MRS Meeting in Boston in 1982 and subsequently served on various MRS Program Committees – including the Committee for the MRS Symposium on the Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management from 1982 to 1984. Boatner served as the Chairman of the MRS Membership Committee in 1989 and as a member of the MRS Awards Committee from 1992 to 1999, and he led an early study of the potential inauguration of a grade of MRS Fellow at that time. Boatner served as the Review Editor of the Journal of Materials Research from 1995 to 2002. He also served as a member of the MRS External Affairs Committee from 1995 to 2002, as a member of the MRS Academic Affairs Committee from 1992 to 1996, and as a member of the MRS Finance Committee.
Boatner has also played leadership roles in a number of professional activities and in scientific societies other than MRS. He has served as the Chair of the Division of Materials Physics of the American Physical Society (APS) during 2005-2006. He chaired the APS Committee on International Scientific Affairs in 1999 and served as an American Physical Society Representative for the U.S. Liaison Committee for the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). He serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and he is the Founder and Curator of the National Single Crystal Growth Collection and Exhibit of the American Association for Crystal Growth (AACG). Boatner has served as a Member of the AACG Executive Committee since 1987 and was the Co-Chair and Organizer of the Eighth International Summer School on Crystal Growth in 1992.
Candidate's Statement
“The international nature of interdisciplinary materials science is currently evolving and expanding at an unprecedented pace, and MRS is ideally positioned to respond to and play a leadership role in guiding the course of these unparalleled rapid global events. The emerging challenges include, among others, responding to a new level of diversity in the makeup of the materials science international community, meeting new challenges in the dissemination of scientific information and research results whose volume is increasing at an ever-growing pace, and adapting modern communications technologies to increasing the public understanding of the nature and importance of materials science to beneficially contributing to the quality of life on a worldwide basis.
The increasing nature of international diversity in the field of materials science incorporates economic, political, and cultural factors that are often complex and interrelated – but the traditional flexibility, adaptability, and creativity of MRS will position the society to meet the associated existing and emerging challenges. In the area of scientific communications, MRS has already established itself as the preeminent society for the global “Materials Gateway” for the exchange of knowledge in the field of materials science – both on the highest technical level through the outstanding quality and responsiveness of the programming that is always characteristic of it meetings, the Journal of Materials Research, the newer MRS Communications, and the MRS Proceedings volumes, and on more general non-specialist levels, through the MRS Bulletin, Materials 360, and the MRS Media Center.
In the area of contributing to the diversity of the field of materials science, the Society has a major defined mission activity devoted to this area that includes the identification of and assistance to underrepresented fields and groups that are currently not receiving the full benefits that the Society could provide. If elected to the leadership line of MRS, I would plan to utilize my prior experience in membership activities and international scientific affairs to further strengthen the already significant ongoing MRS activities in this area.
The field of materials science cannot grow and flourish - or even be sustained- without public and governmental support, and the Society has traditionally played a major role in providing opportunities for the development and training of talented young people whose careers can be enhanced through the various opportunities for publishing, interacting, and networking with other materials scientists that MRS provides. If elected as an officer, I will be committed to pursuing the existing MRS strategic objectives and to strongly upholding the core values of the Society of technical excellence, the visionary and dynamic development of our field, interdisciplinary research, and broad inclusivity and egalitarianism - while continuously seeking new meaningful ways in which the Society can improve its value to its members and to society in general.”
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