An ISU professor will be receiving a prestigious award for his research in materials engineering.

Karl Gschneidner, distinguished professor of materials science and engineering and Ames Laboratory, was recently awarded the Acta Materialia Gold Medal, an international award in his field.

Gschneidner said although he knew he was contributing to the scientific community, the award surprised him because many prestigious scientists have received it over the years.

“You read about this stuff in textbooks,” Gschneidner said of some of previous award winners’ accomplishments.

The professor will be formally given the Acta Materialia Gold Medal at a symposium in New Orleans in March 2008.

Gschneidner said his research “keeps him young,” since it involves constant learning.

His work in the past 50 years has largely been related to rare earth metals, including research into their magnetic and electrical properties, as well as their properties at low temperatures.

Vitalij Pecharsky, distinguished professor of materials science and engineering and Gschneidner’s colleague and friend, said Gschneidner’s work in magnetic refrigeration has been among his most important.

Pecharsky said magnetic refrigeration is a cooling method that uses significantly less energy than the most common cooling method used today – vapor compression.

Energy consumption is a national concern, Pecharsky said, and just as developing alternative fuels is important in fighting today’s energy problems, energy conservation – like that involved in magnetic refrigeration – is important.

“If not for Karl, this would still be an obscure branch of science,” he said.

Because of Gschneidner’s work, energy-saving magnetic refrigeration is on the brink of becoming commercialized and widely used, Pecharsky said.

“You can hardly find a person who is more deserving of the gold medal,” Pecharsky said. “It has to be Karl.”

Gschneidner said materials engineering research has a wide assortment of practical applications, which include not only cooling methods, but also aspects of lighting, gasoline production and a number of other everyday products.

“[Materials engineering] affects just about anybody every day,” he said.

Students interested in Gschneidner’s branch of science should be sure to maintain an open, inquiring mind, Gschneidner said.

“Curiosity is probably one of my attributes,” he said.

Being curious allows him to accomplish a large amount of work, he said, and it also makes that work enjoyable.

“If you like what you do, that’s 99 percent of the battle,” Gschneidner said.

Gschneidner completed his undergraduate studies in chemistry at the University of Detroit, after which he attained a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Iowa State.

Before returning to Iowa State as a professor, he also spent some time at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where he studied serium and plutonium, important elements for developing weapons.

In addition to his other work at Iowa State, Gschneidner has helped develop new, high-purity metals with his colleagues.

“There are so many interesting things out there in science. If there’s something that turns you on, go for it,” he advised any students considering a career in science.