The 2011 Engineering Graduate Symposium Faculty Keynote Speaker is Dr. Ronald Gibala.

Ronald Gibala received his Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1964. He was a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University from 1964-1984, serving as the co-director and director of the Materials Research Laboratory from 1981-1984. He has been at the University of Michigan since 1984 and was the chair of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering from 1984-1994. He is currently L.H. & F.E. Van Vlack Professor Emeritus in the Department and the past director of the Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory. He was Interim Dean of the College of Engineering in 2005-2006. His research interests have included point defects and dislocations in solids; mechanical behavior of refractory metals, intermetallics, amorphous metals and oxides, and polymer blends; hydrogen in and hydrogen embrittlement of metallic materials; oxidation; anelasticity; semiconductor heterostructures; and effects of surface films and interfaces on mechanical properties. He has approximately 170 publications on these topics and has many awards for his research, teaching and professional service. Most recently, he received the Albert Sauveur Achievement Award of ASM International in 2010. He has spent sabbaticals at the Centre d'Études Nucléaires de Grenoble in France, the National Science Foundation, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. He is a fellow of ASM International and TMS and was President of the Materials Research Society in 1999. He has been a technical consultant to more than 100 different academic, industrial, government and legal organizations and firms.