Materials Science and Engineering

John Werner Cahn

U.S.A. / January 9, 1928
Materials Scientist
Emeritus Senior NIST Fellow, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Affiliate Professor, University of Washington

"Outstanding Contribution to Alloy Materials Engineering by the Establishment of Spinodal Decomposition Theory"
Dr. John W. Cahn developed the theory of spinodal decomposition in alloy materials by incorporating the strain energy term into the free energy of the alloy system. It has made it possible to predict the optimal microstructures of alloy materials and to maximize their functions. The theory has led to the establishment of a design guideline for the development of alloy materials and contributed to the progress of both materials science and materials industry.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

1928	Born in Cologne, Germany
1953	Ph.D. (Physical Chemistry), University of California, Berkeley
1952-1954	Instructor, Institute for the Study of Metals, University of Chicago
1954-1964	Research Associate, Metallurgy and Ceramics Department, Research Laboratory, General Electric Company
1964-1978	Professor, Department of Materials Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1977-1984	Center Scientist, Center for Materials Science, National Bureau of Standards
1984-2006	Senior Fellow, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology
1984-present	Affiliate Professor, University of Washington
2006-present	Emeritus Senior NIST Fellow, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology

SELECTED AWARDS AND HONORS

1977	Acta Metallurgica Gold Medal
1985	Von Hippel Award, Materials Research Society
1994	Gold Medal, Japan Institute of Metals
1998	National Medal of Science
2002	Bower Award, The Franklin Institute
Members:	American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Japan Institute of Metals, National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

1968	Spinodal Decomposition. The 1967 Institute of Metals Lecture, TMS AIME 242: 166-180.
1979	A Microscopic Theory for Antiphase Boundary Motion and Its Application to Antiphase Domain Coarsening (Allen, S. M. and Cahn, J. W.). Acta Metallurgica 27: 1085-1095.
1984	A Metallic Phase with Long-Ranged Orientational Order and No Translational Symmetry (Shechtman, D. S., Blech, I., Gratias, D. and Cahn, J. W.). Physical Review Letters 53: 1951-1953.
1985	The Interactions of Composition and Stress in Crystalline Solids (Larché, F. C. and Cahn, J. W.). Acta Metallurgica 33: 331-367.
1996	The Cahn-Hilliard Equation: Motion by the Laplacian of the Mean Curvature (Novick-Cohen, A., Cahn, J. W. and Elliott, C. M.). European Journal of Applied Mathematics 7: 287-301.

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