Dr. William G. Fahrenholtz, assistant professor of ceramic engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla, recently received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation to support his work on processing high-temperature ceramic materials.
The Career Award is NSF’s most prestigious award given to assistant professors in tenure-track positions. The CAREER program recognizes and supports the early career development activities of those teacher-scholars who are to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.
Fahrenholtz will receive $400,000 from the NSF over the course of five years to investigate the processing of high temperature ceramics. The project, "Reactive Processing of High Temperature Materials," involves the development, testing and characterization of materials that can be used at temperatures above 1200 degrees Celsius (2200 degrees Fahrenheit). The research will benefit government and industry in developing new aerospace vehicles and other systems that operate in extreme environments, says Fahrenholtz.
Fahrenholtz joined UMR in July 1999. Previously, Fahrenholtz was a research assistant professor of chemical and nuclear engineering at the University of New Mexico from 1993 to 1999.
Fahrenholtz received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in ceramic engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1987 and 1989, respectively. He also received a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of New Mexico in 1992.