| Abstract: | A second ceramic age started in the mid-twentieth century as a new, exciting materials frontier. Electroceramics with phenomenally wide range of electrical resistivity (spread over 30 orders of magnitude) span insulators, semiconductors, metal-like conductors, ionic conductors, and, recently, superconductors. They also include ferroelectrics, piezoelectrics, pyroelectrics and electro-optics beside ferrites. Advances in electroceramics have been fascinating and rapid, leading to unprecedented rates of industrial growth. Age-old limitations of poor mechanical strength and brittleness of ceramics are being overcome by outstanding toughness and strength achieved in zirconiabased ceramics exploiting the martensitic transformation at the tetragonal-monoclinic phase change. The dimensional changes at this transition which prevented the use of zirconia earlier has now been turned into a mechanism for toughening ceramics to significant levels. Ceramics with near-zero overall thermal expansion coefficient offer new opportunities to science and industry. Distinguished Materials Scientist of the Year Award Lecture presented at the MRSI meeting, New Delhi, on February 9, 1991. Professor E C Subbarao, born on 8 August 1928 in Narsapur, Andhra Pradesh received his B.Sc. Tech degree in Glass Technology from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi in 1949, his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA in 1952 and 1953 and his Ph.D. degree in Ceramic Technology from the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA in 1957. He was employed by the Parry and Co. Ltd., Ranipet, TN from 1949 to 1951 and as a Research and Fellow Engineer by Westinghouse Research Laboratories, Pittsburgh, Pa, USA from 1956 to 1963. Joining the Metallurgical Engineering Department of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1963 as an Associate Professor, he continued as a Professor from 1964 to 1981. He is the Founder-Director of the Tata Research Development and Design Centre, Pune since 1981. At IIT, Kanpur, he organised the Metallurgical Engineering Department as its first Head from 1963 to 1967 and the Inter-disciplinary Program in Materials Science as its first Convenor from 1971 to 1975. He was also the first Dean of Faculties at IIT, Kanpur from 1966 to 1972. Professor Subbarao published or edited nine books and published over 140 papers. He was elected a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian Institute of Ceramics, and the (International) Academy of Ceramics. He has been awarded the National Metallurgists Award, the Homi Bhabha Award in Applied Science, and the Varshnei Memorial Award. |
