Medal of Excellence in Composite Materials

Donald C. Phillips Professor Emeritus, Departments of Materials Science & Engineering, Civil, Construction, & Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Delaware, USA

John W. Gillespie Jr., joined the University of Delaware Center for Composite Materials (UD-CCM) in 1981, serving as Director from 1996 to 2023. Dr. Gillespie is now Donald C. Phillips Emeritus Professor in the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering. Under his leadership, UD-CCM prospered and grew as an internationally recognized center of excellence in composites. During this period, he served as the Principal Investigator on five prestigious Centers of Excellence with the Army Research Laboratory, Office of Naval Research, Federal Aviation Association and NASA. He has published more than 1,000 publications with his students and collaborators. He has advised over 100 graduate students and engaged 100’s of research scientists, post-doctoral researchers and undergraduate students in his research. Dr. Gillespie has served as a member of the prestigious and influential National Research Council Board on Manufacturing and Engineering Design, and Chair of the National Materials Advisory Board Committee on High-Performance Structural Fibers for Advanced Polymer-Matrix Composites. Dr. Gillespie has been Editor of the Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials since 1993. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Society of Plastic Engineers (SPE) Composites Division.

Dr. Gillespie’s contributions have been recognized through a number of honors and awards. He was a co-recipient of the U.S. Army’s Paul A. Siple Memorial Award and was the first academic recipient of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Jud Hall Composites Manufacturing Award. He received the American Society for Composites (ASC) Outstanding Research Award, American Society for Civil Engineers Charles Pankow Award for Innovation, and the Wayne W. Stinchcomb Memorial Award from the American Society for Testing and Materials. His team received the CAMX Advanced Composites Excellence (ACE) award and the Delmonte Award for Innovation Excellence by the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE). Dr. Gillespie is a Fellow of SME, ASC, SPE and SAMPE.