THAT: Upon the occasion of the retirement of Professor Vernon Griffiths from the faculty of Montana Tech of The University of Montana, the faculty wishes to express its appreciation for his years of dedicated and valued service to the College, the Department of Metallurgical Engineering and the State of Montana by recommending that the rank of Professor Emeritus be conferred upon him by the Board of Regents of the Montana University System.

EXPLANATION: Vernon Griffiths was born in Treorchy, Wales and became a naturalized citizen of the USA in 1969. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in Metallurgy at the University of Wales, Swansea, in June 1949 and October 1951 respectively. Vern received his Sc.D. in Metallurgy with a minor in Nuclear Engineering and Chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955.

Vern was employed from 1955-59 by Sherritt Ltd. at UBC, Vancouver, BC. During the same period he was a Research Associate of Metallurgical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. From 1959 to the present, he has served in the capacities of Associate Professor, Professor, and Department Head in Metallurgical Engineering; as the Director of Research and Graduate School at Montana Tech; and the Executive Director of the Montana Tech Foundation.

In addition to his duties at Montana Tech, he was the Project Director for MSE's ceramic research project, spent summers working for the Department of Energy at Argonne National Laboratory-West, Idaho Falls, Idaho, attended an advanced scanning electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis short course at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania; performed research at Johnson Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston; had a faculty NASA-ASEE faculty fellowship at Johnson Manned Spacecraft Center; and attended Energetics in Metallurgical Phenomena at the University of Denver. Vern served as the Director of the Montana Energy Research Development Institute (MERDI). He is a member of the following professional societies: Institute of Materials, ASM International; TMS of AIME; American Ceramic Society; Materials Research Society; the American Powder Metallurgy Institute, the Society of Sigma Xi, the National Association of Corrosion Engineers, and the Microbeam Analysis Society.

Dr. Griffiths' fields of expertise include scanning electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis, X-ray diffraction, metallography, failure analysis, materials selection, and physical metallurgy. His knowledge and insight in his field are invaluable and have been shared unselfishly with his many students and colleagues through the years. Vern has been active in the area of metallurgical failure analysis for a wide variety of clients.

With this recommendation go sincere thanks for 40 years of invaluable service, congratulations and best wishes for the future.