2006 Buessem Award Recipient

Manfred Kahn joined the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in 1986 as head of the Electronic Ceramics Section, having had extensive experience as a research, development, and process engineer with AVX Ceramics and Sprague Electric Co. He had worked on high voltage and on multilayer ceramic capacitors, as well as on semiconducting and on thermally switched (PTCR) ceramic devices. Dr. Kahn was the first to recognize the existence and significance of grain core-grain shell structures in doped ceramic dielectrics, allowing a rational design of these materials. He has contributed to more than 50 technical papers and 40 patents pertaining to electronic ceramic materials and devices, including new piezoelectric actuator configurations, and to the formation of indistinguishable ceramic joints. Dr. Kahn retired from NRL in 1997, but he continued to work on NRL Functional Ceramics research programs. Since 2001, he has been a subcontractor to an NRL Plasma Physics Division Program, which applies focused microwaves to ceramic processing.

Dr. Kahn has a B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Wisconsin, an M.S.E.E. degree from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Ph.D. in Ceramic Science from Penn State University. He is a Fellow and Emeritus Member of the American Ceramic Society, resides presently in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is married to Eileen M. Kahn, and has three sons and nine grandchildren.

The Center for Dielectric Studies presented Dr. Kahn with the Wilhelm R. Buessem Award at the CDS Buessem Award Dinner on October 18, 2006.