Materials Science and Engineering
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Materials Science and Engineering Materials Science and Engineering College of Engineering The University of Michigan: An Encyclopedic Survey Copyright © 2015 by the Regents of the University of Michigan The University of Michigan: An Encyclopedic Survey was first published beginning in 1942. For its 2017 Bicentennial, the University undertook the most significant updating of the Encyclopedia since the original, focusing on academic units. Entries from all versions are compiled in the Bicentennial digital and print-on-demand edition. Contents 1. Materials and Metallurgical Engineering (1975) 1 J. C. Mathes 2. Materials Science and Engineering (2016) 2 Wayne Jones [1] Materials and Metallurgical Engineering (1975) J. C. Mathes Materials and Metallurgical Engineering. — Specialization in materials within the department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering was the first of the present materials-oriented curriculums in the country to receive national accreditation (1957). Paralleling the evolution in the study of metals has been a change in the emphasis of metallurgical engineering activities. The extraction of metals from ores and the industrial chemistry of metal refining afterorld W War II gave way to emphasis on the modification and control of properties through structural changes. This draws heavily on physics as well as chemistry and has related metallurgy to polymers and ceramics. Although emphasis continues in the metallurgical area, now there is concern for the coordination of the mechanical, electrical, thermal, and chemical behavior of all materials to their structures. [2] Materials Science and Engineering (2016) Wayne Jones Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) became a department in the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering in 1971. Since then it has become one of the most respected MSE departments in the country, ranking consistently as one of the ten best. It is now one of the largest programs of its kind, with 150 undergraduate students, over 125 graduate students and numerous postdoctoral scholars and visiting scientists working with 25 FTE tenured and tenure-track and two partial- appointment faculty members in the Department. Another 15 faculty with courtesy appointments come from a wide range of engineering and science departments across the University to interact with MSE’s faculty and students. They contribute immensely to the breadth and excellence of the research and educational mission of the Department. In addition to materials science and engineering backgrounds, the faculty come from many different disciplines, including physics, chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering (2016) 3 mathematics, and biology, as well as many other engineering disciplines. Working together, MSE faculty, students, postdoctoral scholars and research scientists create energetic, dynamic and highly respected centers of excellence in a very broad range of materials research and education that includes processing/ manufacturing, theory/computation and characterization. The Department’s origins in metallurgy and its leadership in materials science and engineering education is now reflected in an intellectually diverse faculty who lead cutting-edge research in a broad range of technologically relevant material classes such as: • Functional soft matter, including polymers, bio-materials, nanotechnology; • Functional inorganic hard matter, including semiconductors, intermetallics and ceramics; • Structural materials, including metals, alloys, and composites. These research areas are critical to progress in a variety of materials applications in energy, transportation, health care, defense, sustainability and other areas to the benefit of our society. The Origins of MSE Almost all modern materials science and engineering departments had their origins in mining, mechanical or chemical engineering departments, and MSE is no exception. The Department can trace its disciplinary roots to the middle of the 19th century, first in chemistry and later in chemical engineering. The title “professor of metallurgy” was first used in 1854. Albert Prescott, dean of Pharmacy, lectured on metallurgy from 1865 to 1870. Bryon W. Cleever was acting professor of chemistry and metallurgy” from 1881 to 1888. The title “professor of metallurgy and chemical technology” was given to Silas H. Douglas in his last two years on the faculty. He 4 Materials Science and Engineering retired in 1875. John W. Langley was professor of chemistry and metallurgy from 1888 to 1889. After these early beginnings, the study of materials (metallurgy) at U-M gained momentum with the appointment of Edward DeMille Campbell in 1890 as assistant professor of metallurgy. He later became head professor of chemistry and metallurgy and director of the Chemical Laboratory. In 1898, a separate course of study leading to a bachelor of science in chemical engineering was approved. The program was the second in the nation, and was directed by Campbell in cooperation with the Chemistry Department. In 1908, the separate listing of chemical engineering courses, including metallurgy, in the College of Engineering’s Announcement, recognized the importance of the emerging materials effort. The materials community has honored Campbell’s pioneering contributions to the establishment of the discipline annually since 1926 by holding the Edward DeMille Campbell Memorial Lecture, given by a distinguished materials scientist. Campbell’s remarkable contributions are made even more so by the fact that he was blinded in a laboratory accident just two years into his professional career; he continued to make seminal contributions (77 journal papers) regarding the composition and microstructure of steels and their effect on properties. In 1914, the Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering was organized under the chairmanship of A. H. White. In the 1920s, White started a strong research program devoted to the study of structural metals at high temperatures. In 1927, White and Clair Upthegrove made major contributions to a symposium on metals and alloys at elevated temperatures. This marked the real beginning of a research program that would bring U-M recognition throughout the world. This program, through the Engineering Research Institute, would also establish a laboratory for the study of metals at elevated temperatures. By 1954, it was one of the largest and best of its kind in the nation. In 1935, separate programs in chemical engineering and metallurgy were instituted and the name of the Department became Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering. White wrote Materials Science and Engineering (2016) 5 Engineering Materials, published by McGraw-Hill in 1939 and 1948. One of the first texts on the subject, it set the stage for the seminal contributions of L.H. Van Vlack’s Elements of Materials Science in the coming decades. Specialization in materials engineering was first offered as an option under the metallurgical program in the late 1940s. In 1952 and 1953, Thomas Hunter, Robert Hess and Lawrence Van Vlack were added to the faculty of the Engineering College to promote interest in materials. At the same time, the College disbanded its production engineering program. Richard Flinn, Franklin Rote, Sr., Walter Pierce and William Spindler joined the faculty of the Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering and the Department gained the cast metals laboratory on the fourth floor of the East Engineering uilding.B When a separate degree in materials engineering was offered in 1957, Michigan became the only university in the nation with an accredited program in the field. Masters and doctorates were added in the 1960s. In 1969, Lawrence H. Van Vlack became chair of the Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering. Shortly thereafter, the Department was split into two divisions, then, in 1971, into two departments—the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering. Eight faculty from the former Chem Met Department became the new MME faculty: W.C Bigelow, L.H. Van Vlack, Frank Filisko, Richard Flinn, W.F. Hosford, Edward Hucke, Robert Pehlke and T.Y. Tien. This group of faculty reflected the growing evolution of the discipline of materials science and engineering to include a broad range of materials and approaches to their study. It is interesting to note that this core group represented research interests in polymers and ceramics as well as in metallurgy. Bigelow was trained as a chemist and devoted much of his time and energy to co-founding first class electron beam and X-ray analysis facilities. These facilities, and the training Bigelow and his staff provided, supported ever more sophisticated materials science research and laid the foundation for the modern characterization facilities on Central Campus and the newly named in 2015 Michigan Center for Materials Characterization, 6 Materials Science and Engineering (MC)2 —a major shared instrument laboratory—located in the North Campus Research Complex (formerly called Electron Microbeam Analysis Lab (EMAL), and located in the basement of Space Research Lab building). Filisko focused on polymer physics and biomaterials and in later years on electro- rheological fluids. Flinn brought international expertise in metal casting of structural alloys. Hucke developed a world- recognized reputation in research on carbon-based materials and thermodynamics. Pehlke led strong research efforts in liquid metal-gas reactions and in continuous casting of steel. He pioneered