DAVID CLARKE INDUCTED INTO NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING

David R. Clarke, professor of materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering, becoming the 13th faculty member from the university's College of Engineering to join the academy.

Election to the NAE is one of the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer. Academy members select candidates who have made "important contributions to engineering theory and practice, including significant contributions to the literature of engineering theory and practice," and who have demonstrated "unusual accomplishment in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology."

The materials professor was cited for his research on the role of grain boundary phases and their importance to the engineering of technical ceramics.

Clarke came to UCSB in 1990 after spending seven years at IBM's Research Division in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. He managed the division's Ceramic Sciences Group and later was senior manager of the Materials Department.

Before his tenure at IBM, he was an associate professor of ceramics at MIT, a group leader of Rockwell International Science Center's Structural Ceramics Group, a lecturer at UC Berkeley and a member of the research staff at the National Physical Laboratory in England.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964 under the same congressional charter that created the prestigious National Academy of Sciences in 1863. It advises the federal government, upon request and without fee, on questions of science and technology.

The group sponsors engineering studies and other activities designed to assess and meet national needs; encourages engineering education and research; explores means for promoting cooperation in engineering in the United States and abroad; and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Today, the NAE has 2,509 members around the world.

Editors: A black and white J-Peg image of David Clarke is available upon request.