Superconductor Expert Earns National Academy Honors
Ohio State alumnus Gregory J. Yurek, ’73 Ph.D., metallurgical engineering, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Yurek is founder, chairman, president and CEO of American Superconductor Corp. based in Devens, Mass. He received the academy honor for engineering and leadership in development of high-temperature superconductor commercial products.
Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Members, elected by their peers, have distinguished themselves in business and academic management, in technical positions, as university faculty, and as leaders in government and private engineering organizations.
Yurek, a recognized global leader in the development and commercialization of breakthrough technologies for large-scale electrical systems, founded American Superconductor Corp. in 1987 with three fellow professors when he was on the faculty of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to founding the company, he was a research scientist in the Metals and Ceramics Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where his research established the foundation for the government code on operating power levels in pressurized water nuclear reactors.
His many honors include being named a Fellow of Britain’s Institute of Electrical Engineers, earning the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Ohio State’s College of Engineering and being the first non-Japanese recipient of the Award of Merit from the Japanese Science and Technology Agency.
