Dartmouth Engineering Professor Named AAAS Fellow

Two Dartmouth faculty members have been selected as 2015 Fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and the publisher of the journal Science.

Ian Baker is the Sherman Fairchild Professor of Engineering, senior associate dean for academic affairs at Thayer, and director of the Dartmouth Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence. (Robert Gill)

Professors Ian Baker and Andrew Friedland are among the 347 new Fellows recognized by AAAS this year for their distinguished efforts to advance science.

“The honor bestowed upon Professor Baker and Professor Friedland by one of the preeminent scientific organizations in the world recognizes their achievements as scholars, researchers, and teachers,” says Provost Carolyn Dever. “This achievement reflects positively not only on these extraordinary individuals, but also on the entire institution.”

Baker is cited by AAAS “for distinguished contributions to fundamental understanding of structure-property relationships in materials, particularly high-temperature austenitic alloys, ice sheet fabric formation, and nanoparticle development for cancer treatment.”

He joined the faculty of Thayer School of Engineering in 1982 and is the Sherman Fairchild Professor of Engineering, Thayer’s senior associate dean for academic affairs, and director of the Dartmouth Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence.

Baker obtained a BA and PhD in metallurgy and science of materials from Oxford University. His research focuses on metals and ice, including the physics of polar snow, firn, and ice. His most recent initiative involves the development of iron nanoparticles for cancer treatment. Additional ongoing projects in metals research include developing a series of high-strength magnetic materials. (Magnets that work and stay strong at high temperatures have many applications, such as for power-generation systems.)

“I am thrilled, inspired, and surprised to be elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,” says Baker.

“This is clearly a well-deserved recognition for Ian,” says Thayer Dean Joseph Helble. “His major contributions are in an unusually broad range of areas, from the development of novel high-temperature materials, to understanding the microstructure of ice, essential for the reconstruction of past climate conditions, to most recently developing nanoscale materials for cancer treatment. He has also been an outstanding contributor in the classroom, particularly as a long-standing teacher of our project-based ‘ENGS 21: Introduction to Engineering’ class.” ...

... New Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin on Saturday, Feb. 13, at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2016 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.