CUTV News Radio Spotlights Professor Emeritus Dr. Arden Bement

Stow, OH - Dr. Arden Bement is an engineer and scientist who retired from Purdue University in 2012 as Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Engineering.

His illustrious career began in 1954 when he joined General Electric’s Hanford Atomic Products Operation.

From 1959 to 1963 Dr. Bement pursued a PhD in materials engineering at the University of Michigan. Dr. Bement was eventually appointed manager at General Electric within the departments for metallurgy research and fuels and materials.

In 1970, Dr. Bement was offered a dual professorship by M.I.T. in nuclear engineering and materials science and engineering. Later in 1993, he joined Purdue University as the Basil S. Turner Distinguished Professor of Engineering and director of a six-university consortium in high-temperature superconductivity research. He became head of the Nuclear Engineering Department, the inaugural director of Purdue’s Global Policy Research Institute, and the university’s chief global affairs officer.

During this very productive period Dr. Bement concurrently pursued a 38-year career in active and reserve military service in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and retired in 1992 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Dr. Bement credits his mentors for encouraging government service under six presidents to include: director of DARPA’s Materials Science Office, deputy under secretary of defense for research and advanced technology, member of the National Science Board, director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and director of the National Science Foundation. Within these appointments, Dr. Bement served from 1980 to 1992 as vice president for technology with TRW, noted for its major contributions to space and defense.

“I firmly believe that a penchant for learning beyond one’s field makes for great scientists and engineers,” says Dr. Bement