- Email: [email protected]
A long-lasting collaboration
Intermetallics 12 (2004) 687–688 www.elsevier.com/locate/intermet
A long-lasting collaboration Robert W. Cahn* Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3WZ, UK Available online 10 April 2004
Abstract Chain Liu and I have been closely acquainted for almost twenty years, and have collaborated in a range of ways. We began by sharing an interest in order– disorder transformations and went on to share in the organization of a range of conferences in various parts of the world. I have spent a little time doing research at Oak Ridge, benefiting from Dr. Liu’s wide-ranging expertise. Then, in 1992, we joined forces, together with two other colleagues, to create a new journal devoted (like this Conference) to intermetallics; this has been an exhilarating adventure. q 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: A. Aluminides, miscellaneous; A. Intermetallics, miscellaneous; B. Mechanical properties at high temperatures
1. A sequence of events The first time I visited Oak Ridge National Laboratory was in 1954, when Chain T. Liu (henceforth, CT) was still a schoolboy and I was a young assistant professor on sabbatical at Johns Hopkins University. The Metallurgy Division was headed at that time by John Frye, himself a former student of William Hume-Rothery; Frye and I shared a strong interest in the metallurgy of nuclear materials, and in fact I recall the Laboratory at that time as being strongly focused on reactors and all that went with them. By the time I had a second opportunity to visit, some 30 years later, as I recall the main reactor had been closed down and priorities had changed considerably, though of course nuclear materials are still on the agenda and indeed the current editor of the Journal of Nuclear Materials (which I originally founded in 1959) works in the same Division as does CT. Indeed, when CT came to Oak Ridge, he in due course became interested in heat-resistant iridium-based alloys for electrical generators based on radioactive heat sources, and soon was doing distinguished development work on that subject. By the late 1970s, he had been bitten by the bug of curiosity which is the hallmark of every true scientist—indeed, the Royal Society in the late 1600s referred to people like CT as ‘the curious’— and he began to study the vanadates of iron, nickel and cobalt and their solid solutions, (Fe, Co, Ni)3V. These were crystallographically ordered, either cubically or * Tel./fax: þ44-1223-334381. E-mail address: [email protected] (R.W. Cahn).
hexagonally, and some of the solid solutions could be disordered by heating. What intrigued CT was the linkage between strength, ductility and the state (and nature) of that order, and he settled down to a systematic onslaught on a clearly defined set of questions. He began publishing his results in 1979 (initially in the Journal of Nuclear Materials) and in 1984 he was ready to publish a detailed and comprehensive overview of his findings [1]. He had unmistakably found his me´tier and when I visited again, I met him and he told me about this work. The research on the vanadates answered a lot of questions that were in the air at that time about ordered alloys, but the vanadates were not strong enough to be of great practical interest and so in the early 1980s CT moved on to apply the lessons he had learned to other phases, notably Ni3Al and FeAl, and eventually also TiAl, which he alloyed in increasingly elaborate ways; he now knew how to formulate clear questions, and so began 20 years’ intensive research on the physical metallurgy of practically useful intermetallics, done jointly with a growing group of committed and highly skilled collaborators, and in close communication with his peers around the world. From an early stage, CT’s attention was focused on the central vice of intermetallics, their brittleness, and this led in due course to the immortal work done by CT’s group on environmental embrittlement, with a steady stream of memorable papers, including also many surveys (e.g. Ref. [2]). But the physical metallurgy was only a part of the total achievement, because CT realized that the identification of
0966-9795/$ - see front matter q 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.intermet.2004.03.001
688
R.W. Cahn / Intermetallics 12 (2004) 687–688
alloys with good properties was only the beginning. It was also necessary to establish reliable methods of processing such alloys (often novel), and once that had been done and patents taken out, CT decided to establish collaborations with potential users and help try out the applications they had in mind—collaborations so close and sustained that their trust was gained and markets were created. In my view, it was this last stage—depending intimately on the processing team—which was the most important advance created by CT and his large group. He invented the proverbial mousetrap but did not wait for clients to beat a way to his door…he beat a way to theirs, and then baited the trap with the tastiest of cheeses.One crucial policy decision he made was not to restrict his group’s focus wholly, or even mainly, to aerospace. In the title of this paper, I have referred to a ‘collaboration’; it would really be more accurate to describe our relation as one of awed observation on my part, leading on to a few small pieces of research done together when I visited Oak Ridge, jointly organising a major NATO Advanced Study Institute in 1991 on ordered intermetallics [3] and, for me most notably, the joint foundation of a new journal devoted to intermetallics. That journal, Intermetallics, in which this little paper appears, was a gleam in my eye in early 1992, a gleam that I communicated to a sympathetic publisher with whom I already had long experience. By that time I had been concerned with research on intermetallics for 37 years, and had come to know numerous researchers in the field. My earlier experiences in helping to create
various scientific journals had convinced me that it is desirable to have in place several editors, covering either distinct specialities or different geographical areas, who operate independently of each other but nevertheless in mutual consultation. So first of all I invited CT to join me, and then Masaharu Yamaguchi in Japan and Gerhard Sauthoff in Germany. When they all generously agreed, I had a team and the publisher announced the new journal, to begin publication in 1993. Rui Yang joined us later when papers from China had begun to burgeon. The editors have worked together most smoothly from the beginning and between us we have dealt with well over 1000 papers in 10 years. By my count, the journal has published papers from 24 countries. Now with the weight of years upon me, I have stepped down from active editing of papers and David Morris has taken my place, but CT is continuing to go very strong! Long may he continue to set an example to the world of research and the world of publishing, as he has done for so long.
References [1] Liu CT. Int Metals Rev 1984;29:168. [2] George EP, Yamaguchi M, Kumar KS, Liu CT. Annu Rev Mater Sci 1994;24:409. [3] Liu CT, Cahn RW, Sauthoff G. Ordered intermetallics: physical metallurgy and mechanical behaviour. NATO ASI Series (E), vol. 213. Dordrecht: Kluwer; 1992.
A long-lasting collaboration Robert W. Cahn* Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3WZ, UK Available online 10 April 2004
Abstract Chain Liu and I have been closely acquainted for almost twenty years, and have collaborated in a range of ways. We began by sharing an interest in order– disorder transformations and went on to share in the organization of a range of conferences in various parts of the world. I have spent a little time doing research at Oak Ridge, benefiting from Dr. Liu’s wide-ranging expertise. Then, in 1992, we joined forces, together with two other colleagues, to create a new journal devoted (like this Conference) to intermetallics; this has been an exhilarating adventure. q 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: A. Aluminides, miscellaneous; A. Intermetallics, miscellaneous; B. Mechanical properties at high temperatures
1. A sequence of events The first time I visited Oak Ridge National Laboratory was in 1954, when Chain T. Liu (henceforth, CT) was still a schoolboy and I was a young assistant professor on sabbatical at Johns Hopkins University. The Metallurgy Division was headed at that time by John Frye, himself a former student of William Hume-Rothery; Frye and I shared a strong interest in the metallurgy of nuclear materials, and in fact I recall the Laboratory at that time as being strongly focused on reactors and all that went with them. By the time I had a second opportunity to visit, some 30 years later, as I recall the main reactor had been closed down and priorities had changed considerably, though of course nuclear materials are still on the agenda and indeed the current editor of the Journal of Nuclear Materials (which I originally founded in 1959) works in the same Division as does CT. Indeed, when CT came to Oak Ridge, he in due course became interested in heat-resistant iridium-based alloys for electrical generators based on radioactive heat sources, and soon was doing distinguished development work on that subject. By the late 1970s, he had been bitten by the bug of curiosity which is the hallmark of every true scientist—indeed, the Royal Society in the late 1600s referred to people like CT as ‘the curious’— and he began to study the vanadates of iron, nickel and cobalt and their solid solutions, (Fe, Co, Ni)3V. These were crystallographically ordered, either cubically or * Tel./fax: þ44-1223-334381. E-mail address: [email protected] (R.W. Cahn).
hexagonally, and some of the solid solutions could be disordered by heating. What intrigued CT was the linkage between strength, ductility and the state (and nature) of that order, and he settled down to a systematic onslaught on a clearly defined set of questions. He began publishing his results in 1979 (initially in the Journal of Nuclear Materials) and in 1984 he was ready to publish a detailed and comprehensive overview of his findings [1]. He had unmistakably found his me´tier and when I visited again, I met him and he told me about this work. The research on the vanadates answered a lot of questions that were in the air at that time about ordered alloys, but the vanadates were not strong enough to be of great practical interest and so in the early 1980s CT moved on to apply the lessons he had learned to other phases, notably Ni3Al and FeAl, and eventually also TiAl, which he alloyed in increasingly elaborate ways; he now knew how to formulate clear questions, and so began 20 years’ intensive research on the physical metallurgy of practically useful intermetallics, done jointly with a growing group of committed and highly skilled collaborators, and in close communication with his peers around the world. From an early stage, CT’s attention was focused on the central vice of intermetallics, their brittleness, and this led in due course to the immortal work done by CT’s group on environmental embrittlement, with a steady stream of memorable papers, including also many surveys (e.g. Ref. [2]). But the physical metallurgy was only a part of the total achievement, because CT realized that the identification of
0966-9795/$ - see front matter q 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.intermet.2004.03.001
688
R.W. Cahn / Intermetallics 12 (2004) 687–688
alloys with good properties was only the beginning. It was also necessary to establish reliable methods of processing such alloys (often novel), and once that had been done and patents taken out, CT decided to establish collaborations with potential users and help try out the applications they had in mind—collaborations so close and sustained that their trust was gained and markets were created. In my view, it was this last stage—depending intimately on the processing team—which was the most important advance created by CT and his large group. He invented the proverbial mousetrap but did not wait for clients to beat a way to his door…he beat a way to theirs, and then baited the trap with the tastiest of cheeses.One crucial policy decision he made was not to restrict his group’s focus wholly, or even mainly, to aerospace. In the title of this paper, I have referred to a ‘collaboration’; it would really be more accurate to describe our relation as one of awed observation on my part, leading on to a few small pieces of research done together when I visited Oak Ridge, jointly organising a major NATO Advanced Study Institute in 1991 on ordered intermetallics [3] and, for me most notably, the joint foundation of a new journal devoted to intermetallics. That journal, Intermetallics, in which this little paper appears, was a gleam in my eye in early 1992, a gleam that I communicated to a sympathetic publisher with whom I already had long experience. By that time I had been concerned with research on intermetallics for 37 years, and had come to know numerous researchers in the field. My earlier experiences in helping to create
various scientific journals had convinced me that it is desirable to have in place several editors, covering either distinct specialities or different geographical areas, who operate independently of each other but nevertheless in mutual consultation. So first of all I invited CT to join me, and then Masaharu Yamaguchi in Japan and Gerhard Sauthoff in Germany. When they all generously agreed, I had a team and the publisher announced the new journal, to begin publication in 1993. Rui Yang joined us later when papers from China had begun to burgeon. The editors have worked together most smoothly from the beginning and between us we have dealt with well over 1000 papers in 10 years. By my count, the journal has published papers from 24 countries. Now with the weight of years upon me, I have stepped down from active editing of papers and David Morris has taken my place, but CT is continuing to go very strong! Long may he continue to set an example to the world of research and the world of publishing, as he has done for so long.
References [1] Liu CT. Int Metals Rev 1984;29:168. [2] George EP, Yamaguchi M, Kumar KS, Liu CT. Annu Rev Mater Sci 1994;24:409. [3] Liu CT, Cahn RW, Sauthoff G. Ordered intermetallics: physical metallurgy and mechanical behaviour. NATO ASI Series (E), vol. 213. Dordrecht: Kluwer; 1992.