National Academy of Engineering honors Panchanathan with Arthur M. Bueche Award

In 1969, 8-year-old Sethuraman Panchanathan stood in line outside the American Center in Chennai, India. He was with his father and hundreds of others who had come to see something truly remarkable in the history of human achievement: moon rocks from the Apollo 11 mission.As he approached the gray pebbles shielded under glass, he was struck, even at a young age, not by what he saw directly in front of him, but by what the rocks represented.