1994 Buessem Award Recipient

Donald W. Hamer is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of State of the Art, Inc., State College, Pennsylvania. He received his B.S. in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1945 and his MBA from the University of Chicago in 1958. He also went on to receive a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University in 1968. From 1963 through 1969, Hamer was employed at Erie Technological Products, State College, first as Chief Engineering of the Materials Division, then as Corporate Research Director. In 1969 he founded State of the Art Inc.

During the 1960s through the early 1980s, Hamer published several papers on multilayer ceramic capacitors, high dielectric constant ceramics, and thick film technology, giving presentations at ISHM, American Ceramic Society, and IEEE meetings. A book entitled “The Fundamentals of Thick Film Hybrid Microcircuit Technology” was co-authored by Hamer with J.V. Biggers.

Hamer is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society and past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the ISHM Educational Foundation. He has been the recipient of several awards for his work in engineering. He currently serves as President of the ClearWater Conservancy and was awarded the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Award in a White House ceremony in 1992. Further community service includes serving as Chair-Elect of the Palmer Museum of Art Advisory Board, Board Member of the Center County Historical Society and PA Centre Stage, as well on as on the fund-raising committee for the Penn State Library.

The Center for Dielectric Studies presented Mr. Hamer with the Wilhelm R. Buessem Award at the CDS Awards Dinner on October 4, 1994.