The Department of Materials Science and Engineering held their annual awards banquet on May 1, 2023. In attendance were undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, staff, alumni, members of the departmental advisory board, faculty along with family and friends. Among the honorees was former Professor George Pharr, the 2023 inductee to the Materials Science & Engineering Wall of Fame.

Pharr spent much of his distinguished career in the department as both faculty member and department head before leaving in 2017 for a position at Texas A&M University.

During his time on Rocky Top, he was routinely recognized for excellence in teaching, research, and scholarship. His ability to inspire students at all levels made him a faculty member that was looked up to by his colleagues and loved by our students. Pharr was selected for the inaugural class of Chancellor’s Professors in 2008, and in 2015, he received the university’s Macebearer award, the university’s highest honor, bestowed only on faculty members that excel by their outstanding service to the university and its students.

He is recognized at a world-leader in nanoindentation, an area that he pioneered along with Warren Oliver, a former adjunct professor in MSE. Working closely together, they developed nanoindentation as a materials characterization tool that has helped to power the nanotechnology revolution. Their 1992 paper is known throughout the materials science community as one of the most highly cited papers in the field, with 19,575 Web of Science citations as of the award banquet. For his important pioneering efforts in this field, Pharr was awarded the inaugural “Innovation in Materials Characterization Award” from the Materials Research Society in 2010. In 2014, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering.