Palmour, Hayne

Hayne Palmour, North Carolina State University Professor Emeritus of Ceramic Engineering, attended the Georgia School of Technology and received a B.S. in the Technology of Ceramic Engineering in 1948, and in 1950 earned an M.S. in the Technology of Ceramic Engineering. He received a Ph.D. in Ceramic Engineering from North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (later North Carolina State University) in 1961. Palmour held numerous positions in industry before becoming an instructor of ceramic engineering with the Ceramic Engineering Department at North Carolina State College in 1958. In 1961 he became a Research Engineer with the N.C. State College Department of Engineering and in 1965 he was made a Research Professor with the Department of Engineering Research, North Carolina State Univesity, and a Professor of Ceramic Engineering, Department of Materials Engineering, in 1981. In 1985 Palmour traveled to Eastern Europe as a Fulbright Scholar.

During his 37 years at North Carolina State University, Palmour was active as a researcher, educator, advisor, administrator, and as a Faculty Senator. Palmour contributed to North Carolina State's development of ceramics engineering education and of advanced industrial applications of ceramics technology. Ceramics products are used in semiconductors, abrasives, computers, electrical equipment, and in the food and drug industry. Aerospace manufacturing utilizes ceramic components for jet engines, rocket nozzles, launching pads, and heat shields. All nuclear power reactors use ceramics materials as fuel elements. Advanced ceramics are also important as shielding and control materials used in nuclear reactors, and are used in the containment of nuclear waste.

Palmour's pioneering work in sintering and ceramics technology helped put the Department of Ceramics Engineering at North Carolina State University at the forefront of academic and governmental research. Sintering is the art and science of forming a coherent mass (of metallic powders for example) by heating without melting. Palmour's research interests included the development of processes for the firing of numerous complex ceramic materials, mechanisms of flow and fracture in spinel structured ceramics, materials processing and rate controlled sintering, and precision digital dilatometry.

Palmour was active in scientific and professional societies, including the American Ceramic Society, of which he was named a Fellow in 1965; National Institute of Ceramic Engineers; Keramos (Ceramic Professional Fraternity); the Society of the Sigma Xi; Phi Kappa Phi; and the International for Science and Sintering. Additionally Palmour was the recipient of the Governor's Award of Excellence, the Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award, John Marquis Award, 1987, and the Frenkel Prize (for extraordinary contributions in the field of sintering). In 1984 Palmour served as a Fulbright Distinguished Professor, Faculty of Chemistry, E. Kardelj University in Ljubljana, Slovenia.