Gary L. Messing

Dr. Messing received his B.S. in Ceramic Engineering at Alfred University in 1973, and spent a semester at the Friedrich Alexander University in Erlangen, Germany. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida in 1977 and joined Penn State in 1980. Messing was Founding Director of the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center on Particulate Materials in 1991 and became Director of the Materials Research Laboratory in 1997. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Paris, Research Fellow at Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia, and visiting faculty at ETH-Zurich. Messing is Distinguished Professor of Ceramic Science and Engineering and was Head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering from 2001 to 2015. In 2002/3 he was President of the American Ceramic Society. He is currently Editor in Chief of the Journal of Materials Research. Messing has published over 250 papers and co-edited 13 books on solution synthesis, phase transformations, processing-microstructure relations, sintering and templated grain growth.

The Messing group is currently focused on developing processes for producing optically transparent ceramics (e.g. Nd-doped YAG), high performance piezoelectrics, and solid state grown single crystals. The strategy is to control sintering and grain growth processes by first establishing a fundamental understanding of how powder synthesis, ceramic phase formation, and powder shaping influence the achievement of specific microstructure-property objectives.