Professor Narayan, Senior ASM and TMS Fellow and Inaugural Fellow of MRS, received the RF Mehl Medal at the ABM-TMS Pan American Materials Conference, held in conjunction with the International Annual Congress of ABM (Brazilian Metallurgical, Materials and Mining Association) July 21-25, 2014 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Professor Narayan delivered the plenary lecture on Frontiers of Nanomaterials and Impact on Nanotechnology on July 22, 2014, and received the Mehl Prize in a special ceremony in the Great Hall of Sao Paulo in front of over two thousand delegates from all over the world. He is the John Fan Family Distinguished Chair Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and also has appointment as Distinguished Visiting Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After graduating with distinction and first rank from India’s top institution (IIT, Kanpur) in 1969, Narayan continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and obtained his MS (1970) and PhD (1971) degrees in a record time of two years. He worked as Research Metallurgist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1971-72) and Senior Scientist and Group Leader at Oak Ridge National Lab (1972-84), before joining North Carolina State University in 1984 as senior professor and Director of Microelectronics Center of North Carolina. He also served as Director of Division of Materials Research (1990-92) of the National Science Foundation.
Narayan is also the recipient of TMS’s most prestigious award, the 2014 Robert Franklin Mehl Gold Medal and The Institute of Metals Lecture Award. He delivered the Mehl lecture in the Symposium on Frontiers in Nanostructured Electronic and Structural Materials and Their Applications, held in his honor at the 143rd TMS Annual Meeting in San Diego, February 16-20, 2014. The lecture focused on the inherent advantages and challenges of nanomaterials and the design of new materials leading to novel and unique systems with improved properties. This premier TMS Award recognized seminal contributions and discoveries of Professor Narayan in nanomaterials, domain matching epitaxy and new paradigms for epitaxy across the misfit scale, and novel self-assembled magnetic materials, leading to nanomagnetics, spintronics, nanostructured light-emitting diodes (Nano-Pocket LEDs), and smart integrated sensors. Professor Narayan’s other honors include: 2011 Acta Materialia Gold Medal and Prize, 2014 O. Max Gardner Award and Prize (Highest Honor of the UNC System comprising of 17 universities), 2012 NCSU Holladay Medal (Highest NCSU Honor), 2011 NCSU Reynolds Prize (Highest College Honor), 2011 MRS Forum and 2011 MS&T International Conference in Narayan’s honor, 1999 ASM Gold Medal, 2004 Edward DeMille Campbell Lecture and Prize, three IR-100 Awards, 1997 IIT/K Distinguished Alumnus Award, Inaugural MRS Fellow, Life Member and Fellow of TMS, Life Member and Fellow of APS, ASM Fellow, AAAS Fellow, Honorary Member MRS-I, Fellow Bohmische Physical Society, and Life Member and Fellow of National Academy of Sciences (India). Professor Narayan has published over 500 papers in archival journals and received 40 patents which have over 19,500 Citations, 35 Citation Classics with citations over 100 to 1,000 and h-index approaching 70 so far. He has trained and mentored over 65 PhDs, 25 Master’s and 35 postdocs, who are highly successful in the field of nanomaterials.