William Hume-Rothery

William Hume-Rothery (born May 15, 1899 in Worcester Park , Surrey , † September 27, 1968 ) was an English metallurgist and materials scientist who studied the compositions of alloys . The intermetallic Hume-Rothery phases are named after him.

life and work

William Hume-Rothery was born in Worcester Park , Surrey , to lawyer Joseph Hume-Rothery . He spent his youth in Cheltenham , where he attended Cheltenham College. He became completely deaf from a viral infection in 1917. Nevertheless, he entered Magdalen College at the University of Oxford , from which he graduated with a First Class Honors degree in chemistry. He attended then the Royal School of Mines where he's at Harold Carpenter dissertation Customized and doctorate was. During the Second World War he was in charge of numerous public contracts for work on aluminum and magnesium alloys.

After the war he returned to Oxford to do research on intermetallic compounds and problems at the border of metallography and chemistry. He spent the rest of his working life there. In 1938 he became a lecturer in metallurgical chemistry. His research focused on the microstructure of an alloy and its dependence on the chemical composition, the valency and electrochemical differences. In the 1950s he founded the Institute for Metallurgy (now the “Department of Materials”).

In 1931 he married Elizabeth Fea, with whom he has a daughter. He retired in 1966 and died in 1968.

The William Hume Rothery Prize has been awarded annually by the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society since 1974.

Honors

In 1937 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1949 he was awarded the Francis J. Clamer Medal.

Individual evidence

1. ^ GV Raynor: William Hume-Rothery. 1899-1968. In: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 15, 1969, pp. 109-139, doi : 10.1098 / rsbm.1969.0006 .
2. ^ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of William Hume-Rothery at academictree.org, accessed on February 12, 2018.