The Materials Research Society’s (MRS) Impact Award honors outstanding individuals who have displayed excellence in areas of science communication, education, advancing diversity, mentoring or community engagement, which reflect the Society’s pursuit to advance materials science and technology to improve the quality of life.
This year, MRS will award Kwadwo Osseo-Asare, The Pennsylvania State University, at the 2022 MRS Spring Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, during which he will present a lightning talk and participate in a panel session with fellow award recipients.
Osseo-Asare was selected “For sustained contributions to building a global materials science and engineering community that spans continents from Africa to the Americas.”
Osseo-Asare is a distinguished professor of materials science and engineering and energy and geo-environmental engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. He was educated at Achimota School (Ghana) and University of California, Berkeley. He has been visiting professor or academic visitor at several universities worldwide, including African University of Science and Technology (Nigeria), Ashesi University (Ghana), Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil), Federal University of Ouro Preto (Brazil), Imperial College London (UK), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (Ghana), Kyushu University (Japan), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science & Technology (Tanzania), Tohoku University (Japan), University of Ghana, University of Mines & Technology (Ghana), University of South Australia, University of Witwatersrand (South Africa), and University of Zimbabwe. He specializes in aqueous process engineering, especially hydrometallurgy, materials synthesis and processing and nanoscience. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. He is senior advisor (Mzee) for Penn State’s Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering and Design with Africa (AESEDA). His blog aqueousolutions focuses on science, technology and sustainable development. Lately, he has been experimenting with teaching and learning engineering with African proverbs. Isikhuni esingaziwayo asithezwa—You do not burn a log from a tree you do not know (Ndebele).
About the Materials Research Society
MRS is an organization of over 13,000 materials researchers from academia, industry and government worldwide, and a recognized leader in promoting the advancement of interdisciplinary materials research and technology to improve the quality of life. MRS members are students and professionals hailing from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and engineering—the full spectrum of materials research. Headquartered in Warrendale, Pennsylvania (USA), MRS membership now spans 90 countries, with approximately 45 percent of members residing outside the United States.
MRS serves and engages members across generations to advance their careers and promote materials research and innovation. The Society produces high-quality meetings and publications, assuring that members of all career stages can present and publish their most important and timely work to an international and interdisciplinary audience. MRS continues to expand its professional development portfolio, as well as promote diversity and inclusion in the scientific workforce, with career services for researchers worldwide. The Society advocates for the importance of scientific research and innovation to policymakers and the community. And the MRS Awards program honors those whose work has already had a major impact in the field, as well as those whose work shows great promise for future leadership.
For more information about the Materials Research Society visit
mrs.org and follow
@Materials_MRS.