Congratulations to Kenneth Kelton

I am pleased to announce that Kenneth F. Kelton, Professor of Physics, has been named the inaugural Arthur Holly Compton Professor in Arts & Sciences. Arts & Sciences is grateful to the McDonnell family charitable trust for endowing this professorship, specifically designed to reward excellence in Materials Science. An installation ceremony will occur during the 2006-07 academic year.

Professor Kelton’s research interests cluster in the field of materials physics. They include investigations of complex stable and metastable phases with particular interest in novel phases such as titanium-based quasicrystals and metallic glasses, experimental and theoretical studies of time-dependent nucleation in condensed systems, investigations of the relations between developing short-range order in supercooled liquids and nucleation processes, and studies of the potential use of quasicrystals as novel hydrogen storage materials His research has been funded by the NSF, NASA and the Air Force Office of Sponsored Research, and he has been a consultant with companies in the US and in Europe. He collaborates extensively with other faculty members within the University and with colleagues both nationally and internationally. At last count his published papers numbered over 200 with 153 appearing in referred journals. A book entitled, _Nucleation in Physical and Biological Systems_, by K. F. Kelton and A. L. Greer, to be published by Elsevier, is nearing completion. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Both undergraduate and graduate students benefit from Professor Kelton’s teaching. Courses taught range from introductory physics to graduate materials physics, from introductory solid-state physics and diffraction courses to undergraduate and graduate courses in statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. He regularly oversees a number of postdoctoral scientists, and mentors both graduate and undergraduate students.

Professor Kelton has held numerous positions of service within the Department of Physics, serving as a member and chair of the Graduate Admissions Committee, a member of the Graduate Studies Committee, and a member of the ad-hoc advisory committee to the chair. Professor Kelton is a member of the Arts & Sciences Academic Planning Committee. He served a term on the University’s Judicial Board and has worked with Science Outreach in its efforts to build bridges with local school districts. He has organized sessions on quasicrystals and nucleation processes at meetings of the American Physical Society, the Royal Society in London, and many others, and was the co-organizer of the 4th International Conference on Quasicrystals held at Washington University. He is the U.S. Regional Editor for the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids and serves on the editorial advisory board for Philosophical Magazine Letters. He is currently serving a second term on the Microgravity Science and Applications Science Council of the Universities Space Research Association.

Professor Kelton earned a B.S. in mathematics from Arkansas Polytechnic College and a M.S. in physics from the University of Tennessee. At Harvard, he received an S. M. and a Ph.D. in applied physics. He spent two years at Harvard as a postdoctoral fellow following the completion of his degree before joining Washington University as an assistant, then associate, and now professor of physics. He has been a visiting fellow at different Colleges within Cambridge University, most recently as an Overseas Visiting Scholar in St. John’s College.

Arts & Sciences is grateful to John F. McDonnell for his ongoing commitment to excellence among faculty. Mr. McDonnell served as Chairman of the Board of McDonnell Douglas from 1988 until its merger with The Boeing Company in the fall of 1997. Currently he serves on Boeing’s Board of Directors. He has also served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and has served on the Board of Ralston Purina Company. As Director of the James S. McDonnell Foundation and Chairman of the McDonnell Douglas Foundation, he has helped guide the family’s and the corporation’s support for many educational, cultural, and civic endeavors. At Washington University, Mr. McDonnell has held the position of Chairman of the Board of Trustees (he currently serves as Vice Chair), and continues to contribute his leadership and support as a member of various Trustee committees. He also was the Founding Chairman of the Arts & Sciences National Council, of which he is still an active member. He and his wife, Anne, are life members of the University’s William Greenleaf Eliot Society, and sustaining charter members of the Society’s Danforth Circle.

After earning his Ph.D. from Princeton University, Arthur Holly Compton spent one year at the University of Minnesota before accepting a position as research engineer at the Westinghouse Lamp Company. A National Research Fellowship allowed Compton to study at Cambridge University where he was exposed to the new ideas of quantum physics that were being developed in Europe. Returning to the United States, Compton joined Washington University as professor and chair of the Department of Physics. During his time on the faculty, Compton discovered an x-ray scattering effect that became known as the “Compton effect,” which firmly established the particle/wave duality predicted by quantum physics and earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927. After three years in St. Louis, Compton moved to the University of Chicago, where he served as Dean of Physical Sciences and directed the Metallurgical Laboratory of the Manhattan Project, which was pivotal in the development of the first atomic bomb. Compton returned to Washington University in 1945 to serve as the University’s ninth chancellor, where he oversaw great growth of the faculty, especially in the sciences. During his tenure, students enrolled in record numbers, aided in part by the GI Bill. Near the end of his tenure, the campus was fully desegregated. Arts & Sciences honors his great legacy with the Arthur Holly Compton Laboratory, a 65,000 square foot facility housing laboratories, offices, and library space for the Department of Physics.

Edward S. Macias