Faculty, staff, family and friends of the Arkansas Academy of Microelectronics-Photonics and Materials Science and Engineering came together in person to celebrate three years of academy inductees during its annual meeting late last semester.

Nineteen new members were inducted — six in the class of 2020, seven in the class of 2021 and six in the class of 2022. The academy met virtually from 2019 too 2021 due to the COVID pandemic. 

"One of the most significant outcomes of our annual meeting, other than inducting new members, is to gather feedback from our academy members that are diversely distributed in industry, academia and federal labs across the nation," said Matthew Leftwich, director of the graduate program in materials science and engineering. "One of the most noteworthy outcomes from the meeting was a collective and focused discussion regarding how the MSEN Graduate Program, its faculty and students, the university, the state and ultimately our nation can benefit from upcoming CHIPS federal funding opportunities."

Academy member inductees were:

2020 Class

• Silke Spiesshoefer 
• Clayton Workman  
• Albert Estevez  
• Ryan Swain                                                 
• Hameed Naseem  
• Bill Brown (Honorary Member)

2021 Class

• Muhammad Anser
• Matthew Leftwich
• Ryan Pooran
• Brandon Passmore
• Viral Patel
• Rick Wise
• Collis Geren (Honorary Member)

2022 Class

• Benjamin Conley
• Ranjith John
• Prakash Lakshmikanthan
• Deepa Mannath
• Fisher Yu
• Rick Ulrich (Honorary Member)

For more information on the graduate program in materials science and engineering, visit the program website.