Historiography of Materials Science
by Matt Tunes
This space is dedicated for interviews and to cover historic aspects of the scientific research within the field of materials sciences in harsh and extreme environments.
I will be periodically inviting scientists for giving their testimonials and tell a bit about their careers and the joy of scientific life.
If you have some ideas, please contact me as well!
Computational Thermodynamics
History, scientists and metallurgy (1)
We are starting today in this blog, a series of nostalgic posts on the history of modern metallurgy and its scientists! Please, if you have a photo that you would like to share with us, please don’t hesitate to contact me — matheus.tunes[at]unileoben.ac.at — and I will be delighted to share with the whole world the good and funny histories from the past. This initiative is of paramount importance to preserve the memory of our current…
Physical Metallurgy of Steels
Four decades of research on high nitrogen steels at ETH Zürich!
In the late eighties and early nineties, the ETH Zürich researchers worked intensively on the development of high nitrogen steels at the Institute of Metals Research – with some success. The result was important patents with industrial partners. A number of such steels are still in use today, in particular the nickel-free austenitic steels used in medicine. In the picture, some of the most important scientists of contemporary metallurgy, from left to right: Professors Peter…
Inert gas bubbles in solids
Three generations of nuclear materials research!
In late 1970s and during 1980s, scientific research on the development of voids and inert gas bubbles in solids – often caused by activation and transmutation of some elements within the context of nuclear materials – was intense and most of the consolidated knowledge on this field is due professors Tom van Den, John H. Evans and Stephen E. Donnelly, depicted here in a 1989-ish photo at the Hoover Dam (USA) during a TMS meeting…
National Security Science
Shooting high-power lasers through the stars!
Serving as principal scientist of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) project (aka Star Wars), Dr. Gerold Yonas was a pioneer scientist within the field of Materials at Extremes with a career which started at NASA’s JPL and ended at the Sandia National Laboratories. With an impressive collection of scientific works in national security engineering, physicist Dr Yonas served as major scientific mind behind President Ronald Regan’s ambitious SDI project during the Cold War and his…
A Life in Science
An entire life dedicated to nuclear radiation physics and mentorship
Professor Kenya Moore de Almeida Dias da Cunha was a Brazilian nuclear physicist who dedicated her entire life to the study of actinide materials and in the academic education and scientific initiation of the next generation of research scientists. She was a lovely and passionate experimental scientist — to the best definition of the term — who enjoyed to do experimental field research outside laboratories. Her brilliant scientific career included 35 years with the Brazilian…
Giving future directions to industry through science
“In the world of science, change is the only true constant” – Professor Peter J. Uggowitzer
I recommend all the materialsatextremes.com audience to spend sometime reading this marvelous interview given by Professor Peter Uggowitzer…
An esteemed member of the nuclear materials community
David J. Mazey: Scientist, Pioneer in Nuclear Materials
In early 2014, while conducting a literature review for my Master’s thesis at the University of São Paulo, I visited the library of the Institute of Physics (IFUSP), my alma mater, to search for papers dating back to the origins of…
An esteemed member of the nuclear materials community
Farewell to Professor Peter Hirsch — A Giant in Metallurgy and a Gentle Soul
The passing of Sir Peter Hirsch on September 12th 2025, marks the end of an extraordinary chapter in the story of metallurgy and materials science. Professor Hirsch, who escaped Nazi Germany as a child through the Kindertransport, went on to redefine…
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