NWTRB Board Member
Updated March 13, 2006

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Dr. Ronald M. Latanision was appointed to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board on June 26, 2002, by President George W. Bush.

Dr. Latanision is professor emeritus of materials science and engineering and nuclear engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a principal and Director, Mechanics and Materials, Exponent Corporation.  He brings to the Board expertise in materials processing and in corrosion of metals and other materials in aqueous (ambient as well as high-temperature and high-pressure) environments.

Dr. Latanision is the author or co-author of more than 200 scientific publications.  Among the awards that Dr. Latanision has received are the 2004 Henry B. Linford Award from the Electrochemical Society; the 2001 T.P. Hoar Award from the British Insitute of Corrosion, and the Willis Rodney Whitney Award from the National Association of Corrosion Engineers in 1994.  He was elected Distinguished Alumnus of The Ohio State University College of Engineering in 1991 and Honorary Alumnus of MIT in 1992.

Dr. Latanision is a Fellow of the American Society of Metals International and the National Association of Corrosion Engineers.  He is founder and co-chairman of the New England Science Teachers and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  He has been a consultant to industry and government and has been active in organizing international conferences.

In 1964, Dr. Latanision received a bachelor of science degree in metallurgy from The Pennsylvania State University.  In 1968, he was awarded a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering by The Ohio State University.  In 1968 and 1969, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Bureau of Standards.  From 1969 to 1974, he worked for Martin Marietta Laboratories, first as a research scientist and then as acting head of materials science.  He joined MIT in 1975 as director of the H. H. Uhlig Corrosion Laboratory.  During a sabbatical in 1982-83, he served as a science advisor to the U. S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology.  He also was a member of the National Materials Advisory Board of the National Research Council.

Dr. Latanision lives in Winchester, Massachusetts.