1991 Buessem Award Recipient
L. Eric Cross is Evan Pugh Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Materials Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University. He is an internationally recognized authority in the field of ferroelectricity and dielectric materials. The results of these and other studies have been presented in more than 270 technical papers.
A native of England, Professor Cross attended Leeds University, earning his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Ferroelectricity. After a short period of work at the Electrical Research Association in England, Dr. Cross came to the Pennsylvania State University in 1961 and became a founder of the Materials Research Laboratory. Dr. Cross was a co-chairman of both the first and second U.S.-Japan Seminar on Dielectric and Piezoelectric Ceramics. In April 1987, Dr. Cross was awarded the first honorary degree from Xi’an University in the People’s Republic of China. His pioneering work on the application of relaxor ferroelectrics in multilayer capacitor technology, electrostrictors for agile sensors and actuators, and morphotropic phase boundary piezoelectric ceramics for highly sensitive underwater listening devices and piezoelectric motors has had a worldwide impact on industrial research, development, and manufacturing.
Dr. Cross is a member of the National Academy of Engineering; Fellow, American Institute of Physics; Fellow, American Ceramic Society; Fellow, IEEE; Fellow, American Optical Society; Member, Physical Society of Japan; Chairman, IEEE Ferroelectrics Section; Member, DARPA Defense Science Research Council; Sigma Xi.
The Center for Dielectric Studies presented Dr. Cross with the Wilhelm R. Buessem Award at the CDS Awards Dinner on May 7, 1991.