Evolution of the Materials Science Profession and Professional over the Past 50 Years, The

JOM, Feb 2007 by Weertman, Julia

Author's Note: I have been asked to write about the evolution over the past 50 years of the profession of materials science and engineering (MSE) and of the MSE professional, The following observations are to a considerable extent based on my own observations, not at all thoroughly researched with graphs and footnotes. However I did find the book The Coming of Materials Science by Robert Cahn' of great help, as was a series of archival papers from JOM, I will be writing primarily about the second two Ms of TMS, Metals and Materials, since this is where my interactions with the profession have been.

During the life of TMS the profession has grown from a primary emphasis on metallurgy to the protean discipline of materials science, from the old description "heal and heal, etch and sketch" to the development of new materials that may rely on the latest in high-resolution electron microscopy or ab-initio calculations. Fifty years ago when a metallurgist was asked his profession (and it almost always was "his"), the response brought recognition. Now an answer of "materials scientist" is almost guaranteed to bring a conversation to an awkward stop. And not surprisingly so, since the profession has become so broad and merged at the edges with other disciplines that it is hard to define. Yet, as Louis Armstrong observed about jazz, we seem to know it when we encounter it.

In search of a more quantitative description, a number of studies over the years have attempted to define the scope, mission, and goals of this field. One of the most influential was the COSMAT2 report, published in 1974. This National Academy of Sciences study, which helped to define the modern MSE field, largely came about through the determined efforts of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Professor Morris Cohen, who then served as its chair. The COSMAT report identified the four major elements of MSE: structure, properties. processing, and performance. The report noted that these elements need to be tied to societal needs through consideration for the earth's natural resources and the environment, for example through recycling. The four elements have become a mantra tor MSE, with various diagrams showing their interconnections used in textbooks, reports, funding proposals, and recruiting posters. Another study, Materials Science and Engineering for the 1990's3 co-chaired by Merton Flemings, a professor at MIT, and Praveen Chaudhari of IBM, emphasized the importance of synthesis and processing and their connection to properties. The chairs were passionate in their belief that, while the United States was doing well in the other aspects of MSE, synthesis and processing were lagging far behind and should he emphasized in future R&D.

Robert Cahn notes that the concept of materials science originated in the United States in the 1950s.1 The origin of the term "materials science" is unknown, but Northwestern University was the first to have a department bearing the name. This important transition from the department title "Metallurgy" to "Materials Science" was initiated by Morris Fine, a Northwestern professor and department chair at the time. He stressed the commotiality of many of the principles applicable to the behavior of all classes of materials: metals, ceramics, polymers, and electronic materials. It is likely this conviction in part stemmed from his previous employment at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, where teams working on a problem were highly interdisciplinary. As a graduate student he had included in his studies courses on quantum mechanics and statistical physics, not the usual course fare for metallurgy students. Cahn attributes this wide-ranging interest to the fact that materials science, noted for its breadth of materials concerns, started in this part of the world. (See the sidebar for more background on MSE education.)

Cahn also credits the great industrial labs of this time with the nourishing of materials science: the Bell Labs, where an interdisciplinary team invented the transistor, made possible by the invention of zone-refining by a Bell employee: the DuPont Research Station; and General Electric's (GE's) corporate laboratory. At GE, a number of notable scientists worked on techniques to manufacture ductile tungsten for incandescent light bulbs. In 1946 Herbert Hollomon was recruited to the GE Lab. He was convinced of the value of broad research on materials for improving their properties and solving industrial materials-related problems. Over the years, as described by Cahn, he and his group were involved with a large number of materials-related innovations, including man made diamonds, high-quality thermal insulation, poh carbonate plastic, and especially "Eucalox," the envelope for sodium-vapor lamps. The Lucalox invention was the direct result of research by R. L. Coble, then a GE employee, on the densification that occurs during sintering of a ceramic powder.

A third factor in the development of materials science toward its current state, supplementing the academic and industrial influences, was the concept of interdisciplinary laboratories set up and funded by the U.S. government. The original impetus forthe Interdisciplinary Laboratories, as they were first called, was to alleviate a shortage of scientists/ engineers trained in materials science. After a number of years of delays, three Materials Research Laboratories (MRLs) finally were set up at Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Northwestern University. Other MRLs have since been funded and a few terminated. The program was transferred to the National Science Foundation in 1972 and continues under the name of Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers.