Contact: Susan Lassetter
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering is joining the faculty of Mississippi State's Bagley College of Engineering.
Michael I. Baskes is a professor of aerospace engineering who also will be a special assistant to Dean Achille Messac.
"I am delighted that my first hire is our first NAE member at Mississippi State," Messac said. "Having Dr. Baskes join us is an important component of our ascent to the top tier."
Messac, who was named the university's new engineering dean in the spring, said Baskes' "expertise in multifaceted areas of material science will greatly benefit our faculty and students."
Baskes was elected to NAE in 2012 for his contributions to materials engineering, including his metal and alloy structures and property prediction methods.
Founded in 1964, the NAE is part of the National Academies, including the National Academy of Science, Institute of Medicine and National Research Council.
The organization includes more than 2,000 peer-elected members and foreign associates holding careers in business, academia and government. Members are considered to be among the world's most accomplished engineers and are called upon for leadership in projects focused on relationships between engineering, technology and quality of life. For more, visit www.nae.edu.
In addition to his new MSU roles, the California Institute of Technology doctoral graduate will continue holding adjunct faculty status at the universities of California, San Diego and North Texas, Denton. He also retains associate status at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he has been a staff member since 1999.
Baskes holds Fellow status with the national lab, as well as with the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society and Institute of Physics. The highest membership level available in many professional organizations, a Fellow designation indicates significant achievements impacting the respective academic fields.
Among the scientific community, Baskes is widely recognized for three achievements. He is credited with development of the Embedded Atom Method, a standard mode of calculation for complex applications in materials science. He also created atomistic models to predict the behavior of helium in metals and established a model to explain hydrogen isotope recombination, which is used in work with fusion reactors.
Baskes is the author of more than 235 journal articles, book chapters and conference proceedings that have been cited more than 15,000 times in other scientific works. A report on EAM ranks as his most cited work with 3,300 entries. Three others have 1,500 citations each.
He is a member of the U.S. Department of Energy's Basic Energy Sciences Hall of Fame and twice has earned the division's award for sustained outstanding research.
In addition to a 1970 Cal Tech doctorate, Baskes completed an engineering bachelor's degree from the private Pasadena research university in 1965. The first 30 years of his professional career were spent at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.
For information about MSU, visit www.msstate.edu.