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Posted on: 10/18/2012 12:00:00 AM... The history that Morris Fine has lived and created in materials science and engineering (MSE) would fill volumes. The focus of the symposium being held in his honor at the TMS 2013 Annual Meeting and Exhibition (TMS2013), however, is intended to underscore one key principle guiding his career, accomplishments, and professional interactions. “As researchers and educators, we are a privileged group of people,” said Yip-Wah Chung, professor, Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, and symposium organizer. “At the same time, Professor Fine always emphasized that we have an obligation to give something back to the community by educating the next generation of scientists and engineers and by applying the knowledge gained in research to solve challenging problems confronting the world today. That is the focus of this symposium.”

The symposium, Materials Research Applied to National Needs in Honor of Professor Morris E. Fine, will specifically reflect Fine’s dedication to addressing society’s needs through significant improvement in mechanical, fracture, fatigue, corrosion, and other properties of steels and alloys. Said Semyon Vaynman, research professor, Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, and organizer, “A goal of this event is to bring together scientists from academia, industry, and government to highlight the cooperation that is required among them to meet the demand for advanced and sustainable materials.”

Fine, who will celebrate his 95th birthday in April 2013, is still very active in research as the Technological Institute Professor Emeritus in-Service, Materials Science and Engineering, at Northwestern, and “continues to inspire all of us by coming to his office every day full of energy and selflessly sharing his insights,” said Chung. Vaynman agreed, saying “He generates new ideas and wants to see them implemented. He is eager not only to transfer his extensive knowledge to the next generation of scientists, but also to learn from them.”

“I have always tried to do fundamental research that might have applications,” said Fine. “This is still of great interest to me. I am very fortunate to be able to continue.”

As a case in point, Fine received the 2009 TMS Application to Practice Award with Vaynman for the development of a high-performance steel used to construct a new highway bridge in Illinois. He added this to an already extensive list of honors, including being elected a TMS Fellow in 1975. The professional contribution that he looks upon with particular pride, though, is his role in establishing the world’s first university MSE department at Northwestern in the 1950’s.

“In its infancy, MSE started as individual disciplines of metallurgy, ceramics, polymers, and semiconductors,” said Chung. “Professor Fine felt that the fundamental principles governing the behavior of different materials must obey the same laws and should be studied as one unified discipline. The rest, as they say, is history.”

Fine himself had explored many of the disciplines that he would eventually help pull under the MSE banner, starting with an early interest in mining engineering as an undergraduate student during the Great Depression at the University of Minnesota. He eventually switched to metallurgy “because there seemed to be more opportunities in that field, but my interests were always broader than just metals.” He joined the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME)—TMS’s parent society—as a student member in 1938.

After earning his Ph.D. in Physical Metallurgy from Minnesota, Fine spent a year working on the Manhattan Project before joining the technical staff at Bell Labs. He recalled being interviewed by Bell Lab legends, James Fisk and William Shockley, for his position. “They were interested in me because I had studied solid state physics as well as traditional metallurgy,” he said. It was also at Bell Labs that Fine gained the experiences and insights that guided him in establishing the MSE department at Northwestern. When considering particular milestones in his career, though, Fine points to his experiences as a teacher and mentor. “Each of the 70 students that I advised through their Ph.D. was a highlight for me,” he said.

Vaynman noted that Fine’s students have an equally high regard for him. “I have worked with many people, but nobody has had a bigger impact on my development and my career as Professor Fine,” he said. “He is a great teacher, great thesis advisor, great collaborator, and great friend. He is also a very patient, very knowledgeable, and extremely inventive person who is always ready, without hesitation, to share ideas, guide research, and help along the way.”

And while his honorary symposium at TMS2013 will give his colleagues and friends a chance to celebrate his decades of contributions, Fine stressed that he is more interested in making sure that MSE continues to have a positive impact on daily human experience. “Research may solve existing problems but important new problems are always brought to light for future research,” he said. “There is always plenty of interesting things to be done.”

Editor's Note: The Materials Research Applied to National Needs Symposium in Honor of Professor Morris E. Fine will be held at the TMS 2013 Annual Meeting and Exhibition, March 3-7, in San Antonio, Texas. For additional information and to register, go to the conference website.

Lynne Robinson is a news and feature writer with TMS.

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