David Turnbull (February 18, 1915-April 28, 2007) was an American applied physicist who has made seminal contribution to material science, born in Elmira, Elmira Township, Stark County, Illinois. He graduated from high school in 1932 and then attended Monmouth College, specializing in physical chemistry. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1939.[1][2]
In 1946, he joined the General Electric research laboratory, performing research into nucleation of structural transformations (solidification of liquid metals), demonstrating that such complex processes could be quantitatively understood. Using a low-melting-point metal, gallium, Turner determined that the small supercoolings usually seen resulted from heterogeneous catalysts in the melt. When liquid gallium is dispersed as small droplets, large supercoolings could be achieved. The previously empirical study of metal solidification was provided a consistent scientific foundation.[1]
Turnbull and his General Electric colleagues developed metal alloy processing. Turner and I. S. Servi developed homogeneous nucleation theory for a solid-solid transformation, providing the technologically important basis for strengthening metallic alloys through precipitation hardening.[1]
In 1962, Turnbull joined Harvard University as the Gordon McKay Professor of applied physics, where he taught for 23 years.[2] Professor Turnbull was a brilliant man and a great teacher. One of his graduate students at Harvard described him as follows: "As a physicist, manager, psychologist and philosopher, he combines the erudition of a Renaissance scholar with the expert knowledge of a 20th century man of Science."[3] He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1968, and was awarded the Japan Prize in 1986 "for pioneering contributions to material science".
David Turnbull died on April 28, 2007, at the age of 92, in his house in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
References and notes
- ^ a b c Science 6 July 2007: Vol. 317. no. 5834, pp. 56 - 57; DOI: 10.1126/science.1145490
- ^ a b "David Turnbull Autobiography". Official website. Materials Research Society. http://www.mrs.org/s_mrs/bin.asp?CID=4746&DID=164500&DOC=FILE.PDF. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
- ^ Alexander N. Rossolimo, in preface to "Atomic transport and phase changes in the lead-gold system", Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1973, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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