A retired Anson Marston Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Iowa State has been selected as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Nondestructive Evaluation by the Society of Optical Engineers. Donald Thompson, internal consultant for the Institute for Physical Research and Technology at Iowa State and member of the National Academy of Engineering, was presented with the award March 3.

Thompson, who was elected by an international committee, attended the Smart Structures/Nondestructive Evaluation 2003 Conference to take part in the events as well as accept his award.

Thompson, who joined Iowa State’s faculty in 1979, is a pioneer in the field of nondestructive evaluation, which is the practice of non-destructively testing a material’s ability to perform its intended function and prevent failure.

R. Bruce Thompson, director of the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation — who is of no relation to Donald Thompson — was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering and helped Donald Thompson establish the center in the mid-1980s.

Donald Thompson also helped establish nondestructive evaluation as a minor at Iowa State in the early 1990s. It was the first program of its kind in the world.

Thomas Rudolphi, professor and chairman of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics, explained the types of classes in the minor and said, “A lot of it tends to be theory about how the methods of nondestructive testing work,” he said.

Students also work with ultrasonics and X-rays to better understand nondestructive evaluation.

After earning his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctorate degree from the University of Iowa, Donald Thompson worked at the AF Cambridge Research Center, the Oak Ridge National Laboratories and Rockwell International in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Donald Thompson is planning the Center of Nondestructive Evaluation’s 30th annual conference, which will take place in late July.