Michael Kassner

Michael Ernest Kassner (November 22, 1950 – August 18, 2024) was an American materials science engineer who served as the Choong Hoon Cho Chair and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering. He was a former director of research at the Office of Naval Research.

Career Education and early career Kassner received a BSSE in Science-Engineering from Northwestern University in 1972, after which he served as an engineering officer in the U.S. Navy from 1972 to 1976. There, he was both the Chevron and the Northwest Aluminum Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and winner of the 1995 College of Engineering Outstanding Sustained Research Award. where he managed an approximately one billion dollar basic research portfolio. He also, during his tenure, spoke publicly about the concerns of the Navy for finding a sufficient number of engineers to fulfill its needs at a time when many persons graduating with engineering degrees in the U.S. were foreign-born, and would return to their native countries.

In 2011, Kassner announced the expansion of the National Math and Science Initiative for Military Families. In 2012, Kassner was awarded the Meritorious Public Service Medal,

Personal life and death Kassner was born on November 22, 1950, in Osaka, Japan. He and his family moved to Germany, then New Jersey, and settled in Redlands, California, He graduated from Redlands Senior High School.

Kassner died on August 18, 2024, at the age of 73.