The Department of Material Science and engineering has created two new endowed professorships. These are the Patrick Horvath Endowed Professorship of Materials Science and Engineering established by the alumni Patrick Horvath ’67 and Deborah Horvath through a series of gifts and donations spanning several years, and the Richard Witte Endowed Professor of Materials Science and Engineering established by the late alumni Richard Witte ’50 and Nancy Witte. Inaugural appointments have also been made to these positions. According to Mark Wilcox, “Paul Sanders is the recipient of the Patrick Horvath Endowed Professorship of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and Joshua Pearce has been named the Richard Witte Endowed Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.”
An associate professor, Sanders has distinguished himself in materials science and engineering. He is also an affiliated associate professor of mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics at Michigan Tech. He is also an adjunct affiliate professor in the school of information technology, faculty of science, engineering and built environment at Deakin University. He investigates high-temperature aluminum, cast iron and nickel alloys, high strength aluminum, aluminum and steel alloys for wire-based additive manufacturing, among others.
Pearce is a professor of materials science and engineering and a professor of electrical and computer engineering with research focusing primarily on green engineering.
Both recipients of the award were elated for the new challenge. Pearce told Wilcox that he was “deeply honored to be the inaugural recipient of the Richard Witte Endowed Professorship and extremely grateful to Mrs. Witte and her family for this opportunity.” “I appreciate the support from the Horvaths. Like Pat, I am a metallurgist and will use the funds to develop novel metallic alloys through expanded external collaboration with academia and industry,” says Sanders.
