Helen M. Chan

Biography

Dr. Chan graduated from Imperial College with a B.Sc. First Class Honours degree in Materials Science, and was the recipient of the Governors' Prize for most outstanding graduate in Materials Science. She was subsequently awarded a Ph.D. and D.I.C. from the Dept. of Materials Science & Technology at Imperial in 1982. Following appointments as a post-doctoral research associate and research engineer, Dr. Chan joined the Lehigh faculty in 1986. She then took an 18-month leave of absence at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where she worked in the Mechanical Properties Group of the Ceramics Division. Dr. Chan returned to Lehigh January 1988, and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure in 1991, and to the rank of Full Professor in 1995. Dr. Chan's research interests include the application of reactive processing to fabricate unique ceramic/metal structures, including cellular and nanopatterned materials. She is also actively involved in research on the role of dopants and interfacial chemistry on diffusion limited processes in ceramics. She is the author of over 165 publications, and included in Thomson ISI's list of highly cited researchers in materials. Dr. Chan has received the American Ceramic Society Roland B. Snow award on four separate occasions (1986, 1990, 1992 and 1999). In 1990, Dr. Chan was awarded the Alfred Noble Robinson Award for "outstanding performance and unusual promise of professional achievement", and she has received Lehigh University 's "Service Teaching Excellence Award" for two consecutive years (1991 and 1992). In 1991, Dr. Chan was selected "Outstanding Young Member" by the Lehigh Valley Chapter of ASM, and she was named the 1992 recipient of ASM International's Bradley Stoughton Award for outstanding young faculty in the field of Materials Science & Engineering. In 1993, Dr. Chan was awarded the "Class of 1961" Professorship by Lehigh University for "distinction in teaching, research and service," and in 1999, she was named the New Jersey Zinc Professor at Lehigh. Dr. Chan was inducted as a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society (2005), and received Lehigh University's 2005 Eleanor and Joseph F. Libsch Award for excellence in research. In 2008, Dr. Chan chaired the Gordon Research Conference for Solid State Studies in Ceramics. Dr. Chan is a member of the Executive Committee of the Basic Science Division of the American Ceramic Society, and has been an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Ceramic Society since 1999. She also serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Materials Science.  

Research Interest

Materials Science