2023 Ward Lecture: Michel W. Barsoum, PhD, 03/24

The 2023 Patrick J. Cunningham Jr. and Susan Ward ’80 Endowed Lecture in Engineering

Michel W. Barsoum, PhD
Distinguished Professor, Drexel University College of Engineering
5 p.m. March 24

Villanova Room, Connelly Center

 

Michel W. Barsoum, PhD, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University, will deliver the 2023 Patrick J. Cunningham Jr. and Susan Ward ’80 Endowed Lecture in Engineering, hosted by the College of Engineering. The lecture, which is open to the Villanova University community, will be held at 5 p.m. March 24 in the Villanova Room at the Connelly Center. No registration is necessary, and all first-year Engineering students are required to attend.

Dr. Barsoum will speak on “A Possible, Partial Solution to the Mystery of the Great Pyramids of Egypt.” For about 4,500 years, the mystery of how the Great Pyramids of Giza were built has endured. How did the Ancient Egyptians pull 70-ton granite slabs up an earthen ramp—without the benefit of wheels—two-thirds up the Great Pyramid? How did they carve granite, with pure copper? In some cases, adjacent blocks fit so well together that, even today, a human hair card cannot be inserted between them. Most important, to this day, Egyptologists have yet to explain how the tops of the pyramids—the so-called “problem at the top”—were built, as well as the absence of any evidence for ramps. In this talk, Dr. Barsoum will present compelling scientific evidence—including C-dating results—that some of the pyramid blocks were cast using a combination of weathered limestone, diatomaceous earth and lime. And while this does not solve all of the aforementioned mysteries, it does solve the “problem at the top” and the lack of ramps. The historical, archaeological and technological implications of our conclusions to today’s world are profound and will be touched upon.

Dr. Barsoum is an internationally recognized leader in the area of MAX phases and more recently the 2D solids labeled MXenes derived from the MAX phases. Most recently, he also discovered a new universal mechanism, ripplocations, in the deformation of layered solids. With over 500 refereed publications and a Google h index ≈ 127, his work has been highly and widely cited. He has been on the Web of Science’s highly cited researchers list from 2018 to today. In 2019, according to a recent Stanford University study, he had the highest c-index (combines citations and h-index) in the Materials Science subfield when self-citations were excluded. He is a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Society of Engineering Sciences, and a fellow of the American Ceramic Society and the World Academy of Ceramics. He is the author of the books MAX Phases: Properties of Machinable Carbides and Nitrides and Fundamentals of Ceramics, a leading textbook in his field. In 2020, he was awarded the International Ceramics Prize for basic science by the World Academy of Ceramics. This prize is awarded quadrennially and is one of the highest in his field. The prize was awarded for “outstanding contribution in opening new horizons in material research and specifically for your pioneering work in MAX phases and their derivatives.”

 

 

About the Patrick J. Cunningham Jr. and Susan Ward ’80 Endowed Lecture Series in Engineering:

In 2009, Villanova Engineering alumna Susan Ward ’80 ChE and her husband, Patrick Cunningham, established an endowed engineering lecture series to offer students exposure to experts from various engineering fields and educational opportunities outside the classroom. The inaugural lecture was held in 2010 and has since become an annual event at Villanova.