Robert W. Cahn
Encyclopedia
Robert Wolfgang Cahn FRS (9 September 1924 – 9 April 2007) was a British metallurgist
whose contributions to physical metallurgy
centred on the properties of dislocation
s. Cahn developed a successful model for the nucleation of recrystallization, which underpinned research into industrial processes involving high-temperature deformation. He also contributed substantially to the crystallography of uranium
.
In later life he made a great contribution to scientific editing, editing both scientific textbooks such as the comprehensive Physical Metallurgy, co-edited, with Peter Haasen, a standard reference work in the field and Journals,
Cahn was born to an affluent Jewish family in Fürth
, in northern Bavaria
, Germany
, on 9 September 1924. His turbulent childhood undoubtedly had an influence on the determination with which he approached his professional life, “his legendary impatience” (4), and his wide cultural interests.
, and for three years in a modernist style house on the outskirts. In July 1933, his father’s marriage to Else being on the point of collapse and the children having been persecuted on account of their being Jewish, the family fled to Switzerland from where Robert went with his mother and grandfather to Majorca and Martin to London to establish a new business. Cahn joined his father in London in 1936 and was introduced to the musical soirées and cultural circle of friends his father had developed.
Sent by his father to a school with absolutely no academic pretensions, he was left largely to his own devices, and he took himself out of the school in 1940. Following a brief interlude in London, he escaped the Blitz to Workington
, Cumbria where he had two years of excellent teaching at the local technical school and discovered a lifelong passion for mountain walking.
From the moment he left Germany until his naturalisation in 1947, he was a stateless person and this had a major psychological influence on him and fuelled his desire to achieve and integrate in his new homeland. He became fervently proud of his adopted country and, following his naturalisation, of his Britishness, developing a great facility in his adopted English language which stood him in good stead for his later remarkable activity as a scientific editor. Paradoxically his life experience had developed in him wide, very continental, cultural tastes, and extensive international contacts and his travels across Europe resulted in a fluency in four languages.
to study Metallurgy. There, in 1943, he met Pat Hanson, the daughter of a distinguished professor of metallurgy who was studying English, and who was to become his wife in 1947.
In 1945, he studied for a doctorate under Egon Orowan
at the Cavendish Laboratory
. The objective of his research was to prove the existence of dislocations, whose existence had been postulated by Orowan and others before the war. Using studies of single crystal wires of zinc, Cahn demonstrated by X-ray diffraction that long strain-free crystallites had formed by recrystallisation following heating of a deformed wire. Optical observation under a microscope showed that these were accurately perpendicular to the glide planes. Consultations with Alan Cottrell
at Birmingham had confirmed that this arrangement was to be expected on theoretical grounds if dislocations existed.
with a salary that enabled him to get married. He completed his doctoral research without supervision, Orowan rarely wrote up the work of his doctoral students and Cahn finally wrote it up alone in 1949. At Harwell, Robert continued his researches into the process of “deformation twinning” Crystal twinning
where he demonstrated a new type of twinning in uranium crystals. However, as the only person undertaking fundamental research,at Harwell, Cahn felt isolated and in 1951 he moved to Birmingham to the Department of his father in law, Daniel Hanson. Here he supervised research students concentrating on twinning, intermetallics and the formation of crystal nuclei during recrystallisation. These themes remained the centre of Cahn’s attention for the remainder of his academic life.
Following a sabbatical at Johns Hopkins University
, Baltimore in 1954, he turned down a professorship at Liverpool on the promise of a professorship in Birmingham that never materialised. Cahn moved to a professorship at Bangor in 1962. However the centre of interest of the department, semiconductors, left little room for Cahn’s main interests.
Therefore in 1965 Cahn moved to the University of Sussex
to become the first Professor of Materials Science in Britain, developing the country’s first courses in materials science. Under his leadership, the Department managed to attract excellent staff and research funding and undertake a wide range of well respected research, in particular on metallic glasses and rapid cooling. At this time Cahn both developed his scientific editing and became President of the Materials Science Club.
In 1981-2 the Department at Sussex was the victim of severe cutbacks in the university sector, and the Materials Science Department, with an excellent research reputation but with a small number of undergraduates (due to the unconventional nature of the subject), was earmarked for closure. Cahn took early retirement and went for two stressful years to the University of Paris, Orsay http://old-www.u-psud.fr/anglais.nsf/index.htm!OpenPage, returning to retirement in Cambridge in 1983. He remained there until his death in 2007, from 1986 as an Honorary Research Fellow in Cambridge’s Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk. Apart from one year spent in the US in 1985-6, Cahn’s main output in these final years was his editing work.
In 1961 Cahn started editing the monumental work “Physical Metallurgy, first published in 1965.[1] which went through four editions, the last two edited in collaboration with Peter Haasen of Göttingen
. In 1986 Cahn, Haasen and Edward Kramer started work on a new series of multi-authored books, “Materials Science and Technology: A Comprehensive Treatment” which eventually contained 20 volumes, republished in 2005. Two further series of books on solid materials were edited, the Cambridge Solid State Science Series from 1992 and the Pergamon Materials Series from 1992 onwards. In 1998 he was one of six editors in chief for Elsevier’s 11-volume Encyclopedia of Materials series.
Cahn also wrote for a wider public. From 1967 until 2001 Cahn was Materials science correspondent for the news and comments section of Nature http://www.nature.com/index.html, the premier British science journal. Popular articles on a wide range of topics were assembled in a book Artifice and Artifacts published in 1992. In 2001 Cahn’s book The Coming of Materials Science outlined the development of the subject.
Cahn was notable for his international range of contacts and the support he gave to the development of international links to promote the development of metallurgy and materials science in developing countries. From 1955 he contributed to the development of metallurgy in Argentina, and made repeated visits to the research centre established in San Carlos de Bariloche
in the Andes. Later he developed close links with Indian metallurgy and materials science, through former researchers in his departments at Bangor and Sussex, and in his final years his contribution to Chinese metallurgy was recognised with honorary membership of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society http://www.royalsociety.org of London in 1991.
Cahn died of myelodysplasia induced leukemia on April 9 2007 in Cambridge. His four children include Sir Andrew Cahn
http://www.newsroom.uktradeinvest.gov.uk/index.asp?PageID=16, formerly chef de Cabinet of European Commissioner Neil Kinnock
and now Chief Executive of UK Trade & Investment, and Alison Cahn, formerly a respected producer of television documentaries.
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
whose contributions to physical metallurgy
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
centred on the properties of dislocation
Dislocation
In materials science, a dislocation is a crystallographic defect, or irregularity, within a crystal structure. The presence of dislocations strongly influences many of the properties of materials...
s. Cahn developed a successful model for the nucleation of recrystallization, which underpinned research into industrial processes involving high-temperature deformation. He also contributed substantially to the crystallography of uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
.
In later life he made a great contribution to scientific editing, editing both scientific textbooks such as the comprehensive Physical Metallurgy, co-edited, with Peter Haasen, a standard reference work in the field and Journals,
Cahn was born to an affluent Jewish family in Fürth
Fürth
The city of Fürth is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the two cities being only 7 km apart....
, in northern Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, on 9 September 1924. His turbulent childhood undoubtedly had an influence on the determination with which he approached his professional life, “his legendary impatience” (4), and his wide cultural interests.
Upbringing
Cahn’s father, Martin Cahn, came from a religious, but assimilated, Jewish family which had included successive heads of Jewish communities in small settlements in Baden. He worked as an accountant for the mirror factory of Robert’s maternal grandfather, Hugo Heinemann. Young Robert was raised in a flat in the centre of FürthFürth
The city of Fürth is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the two cities being only 7 km apart....
, and for three years in a modernist style house on the outskirts. In July 1933, his father’s marriage to Else being on the point of collapse and the children having been persecuted on account of their being Jewish, the family fled to Switzerland from where Robert went with his mother and grandfather to Majorca and Martin to London to establish a new business. Cahn joined his father in London in 1936 and was introduced to the musical soirées and cultural circle of friends his father had developed.
Sent by his father to a school with absolutely no academic pretensions, he was left largely to his own devices, and he took himself out of the school in 1940. Following a brief interlude in London, he escaped the Blitz to Workington
Workington
Workington is a town, civil parish and port on the west coast of Cumbria, England, at the mouth of the River Derwent. Lying within the Borough of Allerdale, Workington is southwest of Carlisle, west of Cockermouth, and southwest of Maryport...
, Cumbria where he had two years of excellent teaching at the local technical school and discovered a lifelong passion for mountain walking.
From the moment he left Germany until his naturalisation in 1947, he was a stateless person and this had a major psychological influence on him and fuelled his desire to achieve and integrate in his new homeland. He became fervently proud of his adopted country and, following his naturalisation, of his Britishness, developing a great facility in his adopted English language which stood him in good stead for his later remarkable activity as a scientific editor. Paradoxically his life experience had developed in him wide, very continental, cultural tastes, and extensive international contacts and his travels across Europe resulted in a fluency in four languages.
University education
In 1942, he enrolled at Trinity College, CambridgeTrinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
to study Metallurgy. There, in 1943, he met Pat Hanson, the daughter of a distinguished professor of metallurgy who was studying English, and who was to become his wife in 1947.
In 1945, he studied for a doctorate under Egon Orowan
Egon Orowan
Egon Orowan was a Hungarian/British/U.S. physicist and metallurgist.-Life:Orowan was born in the Óbuda district of Budapest. His father, Berthold, was a mechanical engineer and factory manager, and his mother, Josze Spitzer Ságvári was the daughter of an impoverished land owner...
at the Cavendish Laboratory
Cavendish Laboratory
The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the university's School of Physical Sciences. It was opened in 1874 as a teaching laboratory....
. The objective of his research was to prove the existence of dislocations, whose existence had been postulated by Orowan and others before the war. Using studies of single crystal wires of zinc, Cahn demonstrated by X-ray diffraction that long strain-free crystallites had formed by recrystallisation following heating of a deformed wire. Optical observation under a microscope showed that these were accurately perpendicular to the glide planes. Consultations with Alan Cottrell
Alan Cottrell
Sir Alan Howard Cottrell, FRS is a British metallurgist and physicist. He received his BSc degree from the University of Birmingham in 1939 and a PhD for research on welding in 1942. He joined the staff as a lecturer at Birmingham, being made professor in 1949, and transforming the teaching of...
at Birmingham had confirmed that this arrangement was to be expected on theoretical grounds if dislocations existed.
Career
Cahn left Cambridge in 1947 to take up a research post at Harwell Atomic Energy Research EstablishmentAtomic Energy Research Establishment
The Atomic Energy Research Establishment near Harwell, Oxfordshire, was the main centre for atomic energy research and development in the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1990s.-Founding:...
with a salary that enabled him to get married. He completed his doctoral research without supervision, Orowan rarely wrote up the work of his doctoral students and Cahn finally wrote it up alone in 1949. At Harwell, Robert continued his researches into the process of “deformation twinning” Crystal twinning
Crystal twinning
Crystal twinning occurs when two separate crystals share some of the same crystal lattice points in a symmetrical manner. The result is an intergrowth of two separate crystals in a variety of specific configurations. A twin boundary or composition surface separates the two crystals....
where he demonstrated a new type of twinning in uranium crystals. However, as the only person undertaking fundamental research,at Harwell, Cahn felt isolated and in 1951 he moved to Birmingham to the Department of his father in law, Daniel Hanson. Here he supervised research students concentrating on twinning, intermetallics and the formation of crystal nuclei during recrystallisation. These themes remained the centre of Cahn’s attention for the remainder of his academic life.
Following a sabbatical at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, Baltimore in 1954, he turned down a professorship at Liverpool on the promise of a professorship in Birmingham that never materialised. Cahn moved to a professorship at Bangor in 1962. However the centre of interest of the department, semiconductors, left little room for Cahn’s main interests.
Therefore in 1965 Cahn moved to the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
to become the first Professor of Materials Science in Britain, developing the country’s first courses in materials science. Under his leadership, the Department managed to attract excellent staff and research funding and undertake a wide range of well respected research, in particular on metallic glasses and rapid cooling. At this time Cahn both developed his scientific editing and became President of the Materials Science Club.
In 1981-2 the Department at Sussex was the victim of severe cutbacks in the university sector, and the Materials Science Department, with an excellent research reputation but with a small number of undergraduates (due to the unconventional nature of the subject), was earmarked for closure. Cahn took early retirement and went for two stressful years to the University of Paris, Orsay http://old-www.u-psud.fr/anglais.nsf/index.htm!OpenPage, returning to retirement in Cambridge in 1983. He remained there until his death in 2007, from 1986 as an Honorary Research Fellow in Cambridge’s Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk. Apart from one year spent in the US in 1985-6, Cahn’s main output in these final years was his editing work.
Editing
Cahn became editor of the new Journal of Nuclear Materials http://www.elsevier.com/wps/product/cws_home/505671 in 1959. He was offered the editorship of the first journal in the field, the Journal of Materials Science http://www.springerlink.com/content/100181, in 1964 literally en route between Bangor and Sussex Universities. This was the start of a spectacular burgeoning of the scientific editing work that was to be the trademark of his later years. He says in his memoirs (3) that he regarded the years he devoted to creating this journal as the most important single editorial role he played. He later also acted as an editor of the Journal of Materials Research from 1985 and established a new journal, Intermetallics http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/423924/description#description, in 1992.In 1961 Cahn started editing the monumental work “Physical Metallurgy, first published in 1965.[1] which went through four editions, the last two edited in collaboration with Peter Haasen of Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
. In 1986 Cahn, Haasen and Edward Kramer started work on a new series of multi-authored books, “Materials Science and Technology: A Comprehensive Treatment” which eventually contained 20 volumes, republished in 2005. Two further series of books on solid materials were edited, the Cambridge Solid State Science Series from 1992 and the Pergamon Materials Series from 1992 onwards. In 1998 he was one of six editors in chief for Elsevier’s 11-volume Encyclopedia of Materials series.
Cahn also wrote for a wider public. From 1967 until 2001 Cahn was Materials science correspondent for the news and comments section of Nature http://www.nature.com/index.html, the premier British science journal. Popular articles on a wide range of topics were assembled in a book Artifice and Artifacts published in 1992. In 2001 Cahn’s book The Coming of Materials Science outlined the development of the subject.
General
Despite his very specialised expertise, Cahn was an intellectual polymath of the old school who pushed hard for the integration of scientific and artistic skills. At Birmingham he organised a well received Art in Science exhibition, at Sussex he was on the governing committee of the Science Policy Research Unit, and he became external examiner for the Liberal Studies in Science course at Manchester University. A very widely read man, he was as able to hold forth on literature and art as on science.Cahn was notable for his international range of contacts and the support he gave to the development of international links to promote the development of metallurgy and materials science in developing countries. From 1955 he contributed to the development of metallurgy in Argentina, and made repeated visits to the research centre established in San Carlos de Bariloche
San Carlos de Bariloche
San Carlos de Bariloche, usually known as Bariloche, is a city in the , situated in the foothills of the Andes on the southern shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake and is located inside Nahuel Huapi National Park...
in the Andes. Later he developed close links with Indian metallurgy and materials science, through former researchers in his departments at Bangor and Sussex, and in his final years his contribution to Chinese metallurgy was recognised with honorary membership of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society http://www.royalsociety.org of London in 1991.
Cahn died of myelodysplasia induced leukemia on April 9 2007 in Cambridge. His four children include Sir Andrew Cahn
Andrew Cahn
Sir Andrew Thomas Cahn, KCMG .-Career:In January 2011, Sir Andrew Cahn stepped down after five years in charge of UK Trade and Investment, the government department that promotes exports and attracts foreign direct investment...
http://www.newsroom.uktradeinvest.gov.uk/index.asp?PageID=16, formerly chef de Cabinet of European Commissioner Neil Kinnock
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
and now Chief Executive of UK Trade & Investment, and Alison Cahn, formerly a respected producer of television documentaries.