Dana Drake receives George A. Roberts Award
October 10, 2024 | Reading time: 5 min
Dana Drake has many titles – EOS Metals Lab Engineer, Eisenman Camp Mentor and Lecturer, and International Metallographic Society Micrograph Database Committee Chair, to name a few. As of this month, she has another title to add to her resume: George A. Roberts Award recipient.
The George A. Roberts Award, bestowed by the ASM Materials Education Foundation, honors an individual who has made a significant impact on the foundation’s ability to reach students and teachers, and increase the awareness of materials and applied science careers. Established in 2003, the award has been conferred to leaders in the materials science community, specifically those who have dedicated their time and efforts to empowering educators and inspiring future STEM professionals. For anyone who knows Dana personally, she perfectly fits this description.
Dana was nominated for the award by the mentor who first introduced her to the world of the ASM Education Foundation, the nonprofit arm of ASM International and world’s largest and most established materials information society, Frauke Hogue. A world-renowned metallographer and respected industry educator, Frauke was teaching the Metallography for Failure Analysis course that Dana attended more than a decade ago at the ASM International Headquarters.
Little did Dana know at that time, Frauke was one of the ten founders of the Eisenman Materials Camp, a week-long camp near Cleveland, Ohio, where students from across the country come together to learn about material science and failure analysis each summer. After their meeting during class in 2011, Frauke invited Dana to join the program, and she began volunteering. Dana dove in headfirst, taking on the responsibility of updating and delivering the main failure analysis lecture, a responsibility she has enjoyed since.
“Probably one of the most pivotal moments in my life was taking that class from Frauke. Not only did my involvement in the camp come from it, and being able to grow in my professional career, but it was the beginning of a lifelong connection and friendship. I didn’t know going into that class how much my life was going to change, but I am glad that it did.”
Dana Drake, EOS Metals Lab Engineer, EOS North America
Since this determining class with Frauke, Dana has grown as a leader in the Eisenman camp, going on 12 years as a mentor and key lecturer, nearly half of the 25 years of the camp. Each summer, Dana has spent a week at the ASM International global headquarters in Materials Park, Ohio serving as part of a team of industry and academic professionals teaching 30+ junior and senior-grade high school students about metals, material science, manufacturing, and failure analysis.
“I often tell my students – everything is made of something. Material science, manufacturing and metallurgy are at the core of the world around us. They are always going to be around, and they will always be important.” (Foto: Dana teaching the failure analysis lecture at the Eisenman Materials Camp.)
As a mentor – and most recently a curriculum leader, Dana spends significant personal time outside of the camp preparing her curriculum, organizing the team of 10+ mentors and gathering resources for both the mentors and students. (Foto: Dana instructing about the use of scanning electron microscopy in aid of failure analysis investigations at the Eisenman Materials Camp.)
“When I first began mentoring, my ability to relate to the students was a strong aspect of my contribution. I was young, and the students would come up to me and tell me how cool it was to see someone who looked like them, talking about their material science career (even newly minted at that point). I realized pretty quickly that this program would not only help me expand my technical and leadership capabilities, but also provide me an opportunity to play with my love of teaching – all while sharing the content that I am extremely passionate about.”
Dana Drake, EOS Metals Lab Engineer, EOS North America
Even though Dana was dedicating a significant amount of her personal time to the Eisenman Camp, Frauke sparked another adventure for her in 2017 – inviting her to teach at the Materials Explorers Camp in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Frauke, with the support of the ASM Education Foundation, local schools, and metallurgy companies, had started a camp for French students to practice their technical English while learning about metallurgy in hopes of creating a pipeline of future materials engineers.
Due to Frauke’s tireless work to connect her community and grow the Materials Explorers program: faculty and students from the metallography program at the Lette Verein in Berlin from which she graduated now travel to work as mentors alongside the esteemed alumna herself. Dana has now traveled to France to mentor four times, and will continue to provide her time as one of the more experienced Materials Explorers mentors since Frauke’s retirement in 2023.
This year, Dana enlisted the help of fellow EOS associates to gather supplies for the Eisenman camp, providing water bottles for each student and eight decommissioned EOS laptops from the IT team. Colleagues at EOS have also brought failed metal objects from home to serve as future projects for campers. Dana is extraordinarily grateful for the support she receives from the EOS community to enable this impactful student camp.
“I tap into my resources to provide for the students because I know what good work it is doing. I care about these students and know that a laptop, even if well-worn, can make the world of difference to the teams at the camp. The material science community is small – with fewer than 2,000 graduates per year in the U.S. We have to support and foster these students’ love for the ‘material’ as much as possible in order to build the next generation of STEM and material science professionals.”
Dana Drake, EOS Metals Lab Engineer, EOS North America
The George A. Roberts Award requires one nominator, with support of three additional material science professionals. Dana’s nomination was led by Frauke, her longtime mentor and friend and bolstered by three fellow Eisenman mentors, a retired NASA materials scientist, a failure analyst for the NTSB, as well as one of Dana’s previous students of the camp who is now a degreed materials engineer working in the medical materials field. Dana’s incredible dedication to the field and STEM students across the country is illustrated by the support of her nominators, and showcases why she is deserving of this recognition. EOS is proud to have such an engaged and generous member of the organization.
The George A. Roberts Award was presented to Dana at the ASM International Awards dinner at the 2024 IMAT conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Her family was able to travel to Cleveland to see the presentation. Her name will also be inscribed on the base of the George A. Roberts award that is permanently displayed in the global headquarters of ASM International, alongside the names of the other dedicated individuals who have earned this recognition since 2003.
