IN MEMORY OF MORRIS COHEN AND H.M. DAVIS

JOM, Aug 2005

TMS has received news of the deaths of two long-time members of the society : Morris Cohen, who joined the society in 1936, and H.M. Davis, who joined the society in 1946.

Morris Cohen

Morris Cohen, metallurgist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been credited with paving the way for materials science and engineering to emerge from its roots in metallurgy. Cohen, who received both the National Medal of Science and the Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology, made contributions to the understanding of the structure of matter and the ways in which materials such as iron and steel can be processed. His work has been central to the development of modern high-strength steels, according to an article by MIT's Sarah H. Wright in the June 1 issue of MlT TechTalk.

Cohen received S.B. and Sc.D. degrees in metallurgy from MIT in 1933 and 1936, respectively. He joined the MIT faculty in 1936, became a full professor of physical metallurgy in 1946, and retired from the school in 1987.

In 1963, Cohen was elected a TMS Fellow, a member of the first class of TMS Fellows to be elected. In 1981, he was named an honorary member of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, of which TMS is a member society, and in 1970, he served as president of ASM International.

In 1976, Cohen was presented with the National Medal of Science, the U.S.'s most prestigious scientific award, and, in 1987, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize, Japan's highest scientific honor for contributions to human progress. His colleagues awarded him a Ford professorship in 1962, an Institute professorship-the faculty's highest honor-in 1974, and the James R. Killian Faculty Achievement Award in 1974. In 1988, in honor of Cohen's 75th birthday, the Morris Cohen Professorship in Materials Science and Engineering was established

Cohen passed away on May 27, 2005, at the age of 93. He is survived by a son and daughter-in-law, Joel and Sara Cohen of San Rafael, California; two sisters, Louise Plansky of Los Angeles and Charlotte Freed of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts; three grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

H.M. Davis

Henry Mauzee (George) Davis, long-time professor at Penn State University, received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry from Oklahoma University and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Minnesota. In 1936, he joined the Ceramics Department of the School of Mineral Industries at Pennsylvania State University. Two years later, he transferred to the Metallurgy Department (still in the School of Mineral Industries), where he advanced, over time, from assistant professor to professor of Chemical Metallurgy. Davis was active in both TMS and ASM. He was accomplished in thermodynamics, corrosion, and many other aspects of the chemical behavior of materials and published extensively. In addition, he taught many scientists and engineers how to write coherent and meaningful papers.

He retired from Penn State as professor emeritus in 1962 and moved to the Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina, where his work at the Army Research Office in Durham (ARO-D) began in 1962. His position there was director of the Metallurgy and Materials Science Division. He established a high-quality program of basic research in materials and led and/or participated in many national and international programs. He retired from ARO-D in 1974. He was also, for some years, adjunct professor at North Carolina State University at Raleigh.

Davis died April 19, 2004, in a retirement home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was 101. He is survived by a son and two granddaughters, and is remembered by many friends and colleagues throughout the world.