Anne M. Mayes
Anne M. Mayes, ’86, came to MIT as a freshman, where she fell in love with materials science after enrolling in Gus Witt's 3.091 and Bob Ogilvie’s freshman seminar. In 1993, she came back to MIT as a faculty member, after a Ph.D. at Northwestern and a post-doc at IBM Almaden. She was fiercely dedicated to MIT students, not only to her advisees and UROPs, but also to the students in her classroom and to all the Course III majors. This dedication led her to champion the drive to introduce biomaterials to the curriculum and to redesign the laboratory subjects to be the types of subjects that she would have wanted to take as a student. She was the first woman tenured and promoted to full professor in DMSE and, in recognition of her excellence in teaching, she was named a MacVicar Fellow in 2001. She supervised sixteen Ph.D. candidates, seven M.S. degrees, and many UROPs.
In 1994, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After surgeries and chemotherapy were unsuccessful, she took part in a clinical trial that eradicated the cancer but damaged her immune system and lung capacity. In 2006, a bout of pneumonia caused her to take medical retirement and return to Mustang with her husband, Glenn Mailand. Emails from Anne were full of stories of experimenting with new recipes, developments on her solar-powered home, and spending time with family.
The role of polymers in environmental issues was an ongoing theme in Prof. Mayes’ research. A major development was “baroplastics,” a plastic that becomes soft under high pressure, thus allowing recycling with less energy expended and without thermal degradation of the material. Early on, she pioneered research in energy storage using block copolymers in a lithium polymer battery. Other major research projects were in water filtration and biomaterials. Her research accomplishments were recognized with awards from her peers: in 1998, she was the first woman to receive the MRS Outstanding Young Investigator Award; in 1999, she was awarded the prestigious John H. Dillon Medal from the American Physical Society Division of High Polymer Physics for “her unique combination of theoretical and experimental insight into polymer self-organization”; and in Spring 2006, she became the first woman recipient of the Carl S. Marvel Creative Polymer Chemistry Award. In 2011, she was named a POLY Fellow by the ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry.
Anne was well known for her dedication to her students, for developing cutting-edge research, and for committing herself wholeheartedly to making DMSE, MIT, and the world better. The Anne M. Mayes (1986) Fellowship in Materials Science and Engineering was established to honor Prof. Anne Mayes’ contributions to the Department and the Institute. Income from the endowed fellowship fund provides fellowship support for a first-year graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The fund was nucleated with a generous gift from Anne and has been supported with donations from colleagues, students, and friends as well as matching funds from the Dean of Engineering and the Provost’s Office. We are honored that Anne’s commitment to DMSE students continues, now supporting one student each year with a one-semester fellowship.