Robert Franklin Mehl

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Robert Franklin Mehl (March 30, 1898 – January 29, 1976) was an American metallurgist. [1] [2] Mehl was noted for transforming of nineteenth-century metallurgy into the modern materials science.[2] He was the founder and the head of a division of Physical metallurgy at the Naval Research Laboratory and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[2] The American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers established a gold medal award in his name in 1973.[1] [3]

Notable awards, distinctions and honors[edit]

  • the Matthewson Medal of the Metallurgical Society of the AIME (five times between 1934 and 1947)[2]
  • the Howe Medal of the ASM (1939)[2]
  • the gold medals of both the ASM (1952) and the AIME (1945)[2]
  • the Le Chatelier Medal of the Société Française de Metallurgie (1956)[2]
  • four honorary doctorates[2]
  • and election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1958[2]

Life and career[edit]

Mehl was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 1919. Mehl received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry and metallurgy from Princeton University in 1924.[1][2]

Mehl is the great grandfather of Jason Mehl, a sculptor who works in metal, and Sean Mehl, the guitarist of Dead to a Dying World.

References[edit]