By Niki Jennings, MSE Communications Specialist
In memoriam
Hans Conrad, Ph.D. (1922-2022)
Dr. Hans Conrad was born in Konradstahl, Germany on April 19, 1922, and was raised in Muse, Pennsylvania from the age of three when his family emigrated to America in 1925. He received his B.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1943, and his M. S. and Ph.D. degrees in Metallurgy from Yale University in 1951 and 1956, respectively.
In 1981, Dr. Conrad became the Department Head of the Materials Science and Engineering Department of North Carolina State University until 1985 and continued teaching until 1993, later becoming a Professor Emeritus. In 1985, he spent a year as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Over the five years that Dr. Conrad served as head of the department he oversaw “major improvements” including a revised undergraduate curriculum, improved laboratory space and equipment, the addition of seven new faculty members, an increase in research expenditures by a factor of ten, and substantial progress toward establishing a strong microelectronics teaching and research program. Dr. Conrad’s research focused on metals throughout most of his career, including multiple aerospace projects for the government and private industry, and shifted toward ceramics in the 2000s. In 2010 he partnered with postdoctoral researcher Di Yang to find that ceramics can be made stronger, at lower temperatures and more quickly, by placing the raw materials in a weak electrical field, requiring much less energy to produce.
1981 was described as a “landmark year” for the MSE department, and kicked off a period of growth and change in the department, as part of “the Department’s plan to become the best Department in the southeastern United States and soon after to become one of the very best in the United States.” Efforts to achieve this goal were seen in the addition of new faculty and staff, improved and expanding academic and research programs, and the assimilation of the former Engineering Research Services Division into the department.
In 1982, the Minerals and Materials Research Program (MMRP) was established as the unit responsible for all of the department’s research and extension activities, with Hans Conrad as its Director. A primary function of the MMRP was to train graduate students in research, as “most of the applied research performed in fulfilling the Department’s responsibilities for promoting the technical development of North Carolina’s industries and utilization of the State’s natural resources” was not deemed “suitable for training graduate students. While the MMRP was established to support the Materials Engineering Department, it was also intended to support interdisciplinary activities as a “mechanism for joint project development among various departments in engineering, in other schools on campus, and at other universities in the state and region.
Previously, Dr. Conrad was Department Head of the Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Associate Director of the Institute for Mining and Minerals Research at the University of Kentucky. He also held positions with The Franklin Institute, Aerospace Corporation, the University of California, and Westinghouse Corporation. He authored or co-authored over 350 scientific research papers, thereby contributing to the areas of aluminum alloys for aircraft, cold-welding materials in the vacuum of space, superconductivity, lasers, and ceramics, in addition to other materials research that is still in use today. His main driving force was his strong interest in science. Dr. Conrad was the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the ASM International Gold Medal Award for scientific research and the TMS Distinguished Materials Scientist Award.
He is survived by his loving wife, Emma, of 77 years, three children, including twin daughters Sandra Murphy of Cary and Roberta England (Gary) of Paducah, Ky., and son Gary Conrad, of Lexington, Ky., brother Warner Schlaupitz of Dover, Delaware, three grandchildren, Eric England (Jessica) of Ft. Thomas, KY., Christopher England (Elizabeth) of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Melissa Countryman of Aubry, Texas, 10 great-grandchildren, and several nephews and nieces.
NC State History on Hans