Gordon Alanko
pcsa writing competition
Second writing contest
inspires student scientists
Guest columnist
The Autoclave
The PCSA Ceramics-in-Writing
contest, now in its second year, offers
students the opportunity to display their
creative side by submitting original works
of creative writing inspired by a ceramic
micrograph. The PCSA Programming
Committee evaluated entries based on their
originality, style, creativity, and execution.
The goal of the contest is to engage students from around the world in the ceramics
community, increase awareness of PCSA,
and recognize students for their creativity.
This year’s winner is Gordon Alanko
from Boise State University. Alanko’s
poem, titled “The Autoclave,” was
inspired by a scanning electron micrograph of corroded nickel and alumina
(below). The poem is a reflection on the
journey to the present while waiting for a
verdict after doctoral examinations.
The first and second runner-up entries
were submitted by Amy Zhao from the
University of Toronto and Ryan McCarthy
from Stanford University, respectively.
Congratulations to our winners!
by Gordon Alanko
Sometime in springtime you stand
Saluted not by flowers
But by your friends and fellows
Addressing your would-be peers
Oh for the days of youth
Or what passed for it, with you
Carefree under the springtime sky
Free to wander, and wonder too
These years reduced to micrograph
How many times muttered, brave
This, this is the one, this time
Only to return to the autoclave
Screw down, monitor, and build steam
Cool off, anticipating
Investigation in microscale
While outside your friends are waiting
This environment designed
For testing, to try, to weigh
What you’re made of inside
To endure or corrode away
Credit: J. Angle; U. of California, Irvine
Tenuous as wind and half
Half so strong, grown slowly
These webs wind through, connect us
Pieces linked in time and space
Scanning electron micrograph of the surface of
polycrystalline α-Al2O3-containing Ni particles
exposed to a water-vapor-rich environment at high
temperatures. The weblike structures are believed
to be NiAl2O4 that formed during oxidation.
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Wander on through the web
With wonder never ending
Their words bring you back to earth
Congratulations, doctor.
But inside you’ll still wonder
Gordon Alanko is a Ph.D. candidate in materials science at Boise State
University. His advisor, Darryl P. Butt, has described him as “a scientist, an engineer, a soldier, a husband, a father, and a poet.” Gordon’s
research applies in-situ measurements to study phenomena during mechanochemical processing of refractory and nuclear materials. n
www.ceramics.org | American Ceramic Society Bulletin, Vol. 93, No. 5