UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Three faculty from Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS) have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Members of the class of 2025 include Susan Brantley, Atherton Professor and Evan Pugh University Professor Emerita of Geosciences; Long-Qing Chen, Donald W. Hamer Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; and Russell Johns, George E. Trimble Chair of Energy and Mineral Sciences and professor of petroleum and natural gas engineering. Chen is also a professor of mathematics in the Eberly College of Science and a professor of engineering science and mechanics in the College of Engineering.
They are among the 128 new members and 22 international members elected to the NAE on Feb. 11, bringing the U.S. membership to 2,487 and the number of international members to 336. The newly elected class will be formally inducted during the NAE's Annual Meeting on Oct. 5.
“I’m particularly proud that these three outstanding faculty members have their academic homes in three different EMS departments,” said Lee Kump, the John Leone Dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. “They join a uniquely strong cadre of National Academy members in the college and across the University.”
NAE membership recognizes significant contributions to engineering practice, research, or education, to the pioneering of new and developing technological fields, to major advancement in traditional fields of engineering, to the development and implementation of innovative approaches to engineering education and leadership. Founded in 1964, the NAE provides independent analysis and advice to the nation.
About the new NAE members
Susan Brantley was elected “for elucidating chemical, biological, and physical processes associated with the circulation of aqueous fluids in shallow hydrogeologic settings.”
Brantley, who joined the Penn State faculty in 1986, earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry, her master’s degree in geological and geophysical sciences, and her doctorate in geological and geophysical sciences, all from Princeton University. She is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, the Geochemical Society, the European Association of Geochemistry and the International Association of GeoChemistry. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. She also was awarded the Arthur L. Day Medal from the Geological Society of America and the Wollaston Medal from the Geological Society of London.
Long-Qing Chen was elected “for making the phase-field method the most powerful tool for predicting the mesoscopic microstructure and properties of engineering materials.”
Chen, who joined the Penn State faculty in 1992, earned his bachelor's degree from Zhejiang University, China; his master's degree from Stony Brook University; and his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all in materials science and engineering. He is a fellow of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS), the Materials Research Society (MRS), the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Ceramic Society (ACerS), and ASM International. He was elected as a foreign member of the Academia Europaea. He received MRS Materials Theory Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, Humboldt Research Award, TMS John Bardeen Award, TMS Hume-Rothery Award, ACerS Ross Coffin Purdy Award, TMS Cyril Stanley Smith Award, and IEEE-UFFC Distinguished Lecturer Award. Chen is also a professor of engineering science and mechanics and professor of mathematics.
Russell Johns was elected “for developing thermodynamically rigorous algorithms for modeling hydrocarbon recovery processes.”
Johns, who joined the Penn State faculty in 2010, earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Northwestern University, and his master's degree and doctorate in petroleum engineering and a minor in water resources, all from Stanford University. Prior to joining Penn State, he was a member of the University of Texas at Austin faculty from 1995 to 2010. He is a Society for Petroleum Engineering (SPE) Distinguished Lecturer and former editor in chief for SPE technical journals. He received the SPE Cedric K. Ferguson Award, SPE Distinguished Member Award, SPE Ph.D. Pipeline Award, SPE International Award in Reservoir Description and Dynamics, SPE IOR Pioneer Award and the International SPE Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal for Technical Leadership.