1989 Buessem Award Recipient

Wilhelm Rudolph Buessem was born on March 27, 1903 in Oberhausen, Germany. He attended the Universities of Freiburg and Munich and received his doctorate in engineering from the University of Berlin. He was a department head at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin from 1930 to 1938; from 1938 to 1947, he was head of the Ceramic Research Laboratory at Siemens in Berlin. He immigrated to the United States in 1947, where he served as a consultant to the Wright Air Development Center until 1950. From 1950 until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1968, he was professor of ceramic science at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State University. During those years, his research was centered primarily on physical properties of inorganic materials, such as thermal shock resistance and dielectric and magnetic properties.

The Wilhelm R. Buessem Award was created in 1989 by the Center for Dielectric Studies to honor Dr. Buessem’s outstanding contributions to the field of dielectrics. The award was presented to Dr. Buessem at the First Annual Center for Dielectric Studies Awards Dinner on May 10, 1989.

Dr. Buessem passed away on August 4, 1992, at the age of 89.