LOS ALAMOS, N.M., April 20, 2021—Ellen Cerreta, the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s division leader for Materials Science and Technology, has been named president of The Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society (TMS), a professional society for scientists and engineers in those fields.
“TMS aspires to be the professional society where global materials, science, and engineering practitioners come together to scope the future of materials engineering and technology,” said Cerreta. “As such, I am honored to have been selected by the membership of this society to serve as president.”
The Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society connects minerals, metals, and materials scientists and engineers who work in industry, academia, and government positions around the world. They create networking, publication, and professional development opportunities by convening international conferences, publishing books and journals, administering awards, conducting short courses and training, and bringing together the professional community to address issues of common concern. They also provide leadership in the professional licensing of engineers and in the accreditation of university programs in metallurgical, materials, and similarly named engineering programs. TMS currently supports nearly 14,000 professional and student members on six continents.
Cerreta had previously served as vice president of TMS, and she has been on the organization’s board of directors twice and a member of various committees since joining TMS in 1997.
The Materials Science and Technology division at Los Alamos, under Cerreta’s leadership, provides innovative and agile materials science and technology solutions for national security missions. By integrating the division’s capabilities across materials synthesis, processing, properties, and performance, she supports research, development, and component manufacturing as well as the application of fundamental materials expertise to a range of national security needs, including nuclear energy, nonproliferation, and global threat reduction.
Cerreta has previously served as the deputy division leader for Explosive Science and Shock Physics, and as the program manager for High Explosives Safety at Los Alamos.
Cerreta received her B.S. degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Virginia and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in materials science and engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. She has been at Los Alamos since 2001 and her own research focuses on the relationship between microstructure and dynamic materials properties. At Los Alamos, she has led a number of projects to investigate dynamic materials performance and provide insight toward advanced predictive capabilities for strength and damage in extreme environments.
She has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in this area of research and is also an adjunct faculty member in The Institute of Shock Physics at Washington State University and was inducted into the 2016 ASM Fellows Class.
About Los Alamos National Laboratory (www.lanl.gov)
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is managed by Triad, a public service oriented, national security science organization equally owned by its three founding members: Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle), the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS), and the Regents of the University of California (UC) for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.
LA-UR-21-23823
