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Awarding excellence
In honor of the 15th year anniversary of Dr. Hendrickson’s retirement from ASU, and his dedication to the MSE program, we’d like to start the Dr. Lester E. Hendrickson Leadership & Teaching Excellence Award that will be awarded annually to a faculty member within the Materials Science and Engineering Program who demonstrates excellence in their leadership and teaching.
Our goal is to reach an initial $25,000 so that we can endow the teaching award and it will last in perpetuity.
Thanks to Dr. Terry Alford, the first $1,000 donated will be matched dollar for dollar. By making a contribution you have the opportunity to double your impact and help us raise the initial $25,000 to endow the Dr. Lester E. Hendrickson Leadership & Teaching Excellence Award and support students for years to come.
"Dr. Hendrickson played a pivotal role in building the MSE program at ASU. He is a fantastic leader and mentor and being able to create this award in his honor will help us carry on his legacy of leadership and teaching excellence within the MSE program. We want to honor faculty members who prioritize leadership and teaching excellence, so that our students get the best experience possible.”
~ Dr. Terry Alford, Associate Director and Professor, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy.
Dr. Lester E. Hendrickson received his BS and MS in Metallurgical Engineering from Michigan Technology University and his PhD in Metallurgical Engineering and Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Dr. Hendrickson was first introduced to ASU in 1967. At this time, the Engineering College was seriously considering adding a B.S. Degree Program in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) to complement several other degree programs, and to satisfy the demands of the relatively new and expanding semiconductor industry in Arizona.
He accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Fall of 1968. His first year on campus was devoted to developing a curriculum in Materials Science and Engineering that would meet the requirements of the appropriate accrediting agency. He was instrumental in the development and approval process for both the undergraduate and masters programs. Dr. Hendrickson remained at ASU as a full-time faculty member and the administrative head of the Materials Science and Engineering program until 1995.
In 1995, Dr. Hendrickson retired from ASU but requested the opportunity to continue to teach courses. He was awarded the title Professor Emeritus and continued to teach at least one course each semester until the Fall of 2008, completing forty years as a member of the ASU faculty.
After retiring, Dr. Hendrickson went on to develop a consulting business in the field of Forensic Engineering. As a consultant, he has been retained in more than fifteen hundred investigations. He was under contract with the State of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, assisting in the investigation of the cause and origin of wildland fires. He has been retained by the U. S. Attorneys for the States of California, Colorado and South Dakota, the Attorney Generals for the States of Arizona, South Dakota, and California, numerous law firms and numerous industries. He has given expert testimony in approximately one-hundred forty trials in fifteen State Courts and in twelve Federal Courts nationwide.
Materials research is a rapidly evolving arm of the engineering community. Using imagination, curiosity, testing and tools as fuel for discovery, materials science is helping us to understand the structure-property relationships of nanomaterials, and applications in energy, security and sustainability.
The MSE graduate program at ASU is ranked #23 among public universities according to US News and World Report. Graduates from the MSE graduate program have obtained challenging jobs with materials dependent high technology industries, universities, and government research laboratories. Many of them are now in high level administrative and research positions. The program boasts a 100% placement rate. Several of our graduates have also received national and international awards for their research.
Without Dr. Hendrickson’s leadership, the Materials Science and Engineering Program wouldn’t be what it is today. We are grateful for the strong foundation he built and his unwavering dedication to the program over the years.
