Alison Flatau, professor of aerospace engineering and interim associate dean, is the recipient of the 2010 SPIE Smart Structures and Materials Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to research in smart structures and materials as well as exemplary service to SPIE.

SPIE (formerly the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers) is an international society for optics and photonics.

Flatau's service to the SPIE Smart Structures and Materials / NDE Symposium includes chairing the student paper competition (1999-2003), co-chairing (2003) and chairing (2004, 2005) the SPIE Smart Structures and Integrated Systems Conference, and co-chairing (2006 and 2007) and chairing (2008 and 2009) the SPIE Symposium. She also served as the chair of the ASME Adaptive Structures and Materials Technical Committee that coordinates five SPIE conferences.

Flatau is interim associate dean for research at the Clark School. She began her professorial career at Iowa State University (1990-1998), and subsequently joined the NSF where she served as program director for dynamic systems and control (1998-2002), and administered the NSF Faculty Early Career Award (CAREER) program across the entire NSF.

In 2002, Flatau joined the faculty of aerospace engineering at the Clark School. She served as chair of the undergraduate affairs committee, director of the Honors Program, and faculty advisor for the AIAA student chapter. Her research accomplishments include the characterization, modeling and application of magnetostrictive materials as sensors and actuators to control noise, vibration and external flows in aerospace systems, and she holds several patents on these applications.

Flatau is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and an associate fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She has co-authored more than 50 archival journal articles and book chapters and more than 100 conference papers.
October 15, 2009