September 28, 1995

Professor to receive National Medal of Technology from President Clinton

Dr. Jerome J. Cuomo, distinguished research professor in materials science and engineering at North Carolina State University, will receive a National Medal of Technology from President Bill Clinton on October 18 in a ceremony at the White House. The announcement was made September 27 by Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.

The medal is awarded by the president to individuals, teams and companies for outstanding achievement in the following areas: process and product innovation, technology transfer, advanced manufacturing technology, technology management, and human resources development that fosters technology commercialization. The program is administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Administration.

This year five individuals and one team, of which Cuomo is a part, will receive the award. Also on the team with Cuomo are Dr. Richard Gambino, professor of materials science at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and Praveen Chaudhari of the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.

The team's citation reads: "For the discovery and development of a new class of materials--the amorphous magnetic materials--that are the basis of erasable, read-write, optical storage technology, now the foundation of the worldwide magneto-optic disk industry."

An N.C. State alumnus, John S. Mayo, former president of AT&T Bell Laboratories, won the award in 1990. He received bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from N.C. State.

During the press conference in which the announcement was made, Cuomo said, "Innovation needs fostering and vision. Innovation is not a happy accident but happens more frequently in nurtured environments provided by governments, institutions, companies and within research teams."

Cuomo joined the NCSU faculty in 1993 after a thirty-year career with IBM during which he discovered new materials, developed diamond thin film capabilities, and initiated numerous projects related to materials processing. He was elected to the IBM Academy of Technology in 1992, has published over 200 papers and holds 92 patents.

Cuomo received a B.S. in chemistry in 1958 from Manhattan College, an M.S. in physical chemistry in 1960 from St. Johns University and a Ph.D. in physics in 1979 from Odense Universitet in Denmark.

He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1993 and as a Fellow of the American Vacuum Society. He is also a member of the Society of Vacuum Coaters, the Materials Research Society, the American Physical Society, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. His university activities currently include establishment of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing Processes and Materials (CAMP-M). He and his wife Rita have three children and live in Lincolndale, New York.

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