Washington, DC-In the National Academy of Engineering list of "The Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20^th Century," high-performance materials ranked #20.

Federation of Materials Societies President James F. Key hailed the recognition, and noted that materials and materials technologies also are enablers for virtually the entire list, from automobiles to electronics to medical imaging technologies to household appliances.

"Discoveries of new materials, new uses for traditional materials, and the ability to process, mold and join them are truly keys to the breakthroughs of the 20^th century," Dr. Key said. "The field of materials science and engineering has provided us the building blocks for the great advances of the past hundred years, and will continue to do so."

In announcing the Greatest Achievements, astronaut/engineer Neil Armstrong noted that "the materials revolution that took hold in 1900 began with the heavy building blocks of iron and steel. As we enter the 21^st century, the realm of new materials is limited only by imagination....Much as earlier eras were characterized as the ages of stone, iron and copper, it may be that the term that best characterizes the 20^th century is the age of engineered materials," he concluded.

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February 2000