The Penn State Chapter of ASM is pleased announce Dr. Mahlon D. Dennis as its 2007 David Ford McFarland Award recipient.  The David Ford McFarland Award was established by the Penn State Chapter of ASM in 1948 to acknowledge graduates of The Pennsylvania State University who have distinguished records of achievement in the field of materials science.  The award was named in honor of Dr. David Ford McFarland, who was head of the Metallurgy Department from 1920-1945.  Since then, 59 awardees have been named.
 
Dr. Dennis is the founder and currently President of Dennis Tool Company in Houston, TX.  He was awarded a B.S. in Chemistry and Physics from Mansfield College in 1965. From 1965 to the fall of 1967 he was a Research Chemist for fluorescent chemicals at G.T.E. Sylvania in Towanda, PA.  After leaving Sylvania, he received his Master and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Ceramics Science from The Pennsylvania State University in 1969 and 1971, respectively.  He stayed for one year as a Post Doctoral Fellow to solve beer bottle explosion problems for the glass container industry.  In 1973, General Electric hired him to work in the diamond business.  He became a leader of a team that developed polycrystalline diamond compacts into a large worldwide business.  In 1980, the call to the oilfield beckoned, and Houston became home.  He founded a company, Strata Bit Corporation, which developed a new drilling technology.  In just four years, sales approached $50,000,000.  In 1985, he sold the company to Sandvik and worked part-time for them in Sweden for several years.  In 1989, he decided to go back to his primary interest - diamonds.  Dennis Tool Company was started as a diamond company, and his sons are now contributing as well.  Dr. Dennis has been awarded several dozen patents and published several international papers.  He was written up with a two-page article in Business Week and honored as Entrepreneur of the Year in Texas.  In 1998, he received the “Distinguished Alumnus of Penn State” award.