Michael Guerette, postdoctoral researcher and graduate of Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been honored by the Glass and Optical Materials Division (GOMD) in the American Ceramic Society. Guerette has been recognized with the Norbert J. Kreidl Award for Young Scholars, the highest honor GOMD bestows upon a graduate student, recognizing research excellence in glass science.
Michael Guerette
A citation in the May edition of the American Ceramic Society Bulletin said that Guerette is “researching the structure and property relationships of silica glass that are subjected to extreme temperature, pressure, and strain.” The publication said that “Guerette’s results contribute to a fundamental understanding of the structure and elastic properties of glasses under high-strain conditions, which is of critical importance for developing strong glasses.”
“With extreme patience and skills, Michael Guerette established a high resolution in-situ Brillouin light scattering technique to measure the elastic moduli of glass fibers under high strains in two-point bend,” said Liping Huang, associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “His work provides a better understanding of the stress-strain behavior of glasses, which is key to the engineering of stronger glasses.”
Guerette, a native of Portland, Maine, received a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Southern Maine, where he studied optical techniques for material characterization, and a doctoral degree in materials engineering from Rensselaer.
The Norbert J. Kreidl Award for Young Scholars recognizes research excellence in glass science among graduate students. The selection is based on an extended abstract of the nominee’s work (approximately 2,000 words plus figures) relevant to interests of the Division. As a winner of the award, Guerette will present his research at the 2015 GOMD meeting held May 17-21 in Miami, Florida.