Metallurgical Design and Industry ― Prehistory to the Space Age

?This edited volume examines metallurgical technologies and their place in society throughout the centuries. The authors discuss metal alloys and the use of raw mineral resources as well as fabrication of engineered alloys for a variety of applications. The applications covered in depth include financial, mining and smelting, bridges, armor, aircraft, and power generation. The authors detail the multiple levels and scales of impact that metallurgical advances have had and continue to have on society. They include case studies with guidance for future research design and innovation of metallic materials relevant to societal needs.

Professor Brett Kaufman is currently at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Professor Clyde Briant is at Brown University. Brett Kaufman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of the Classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, joining the faculty in 2018. He graduated with a PhD in Archaeology from the University of California, Los Angeles, before holding a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Brown University, and an Assistant Professorship at the University of Science and Technology Beijing. His research focuses primarily on ancient, historic, and prehistoric science and engineering with a particular specialty in metallurgy (archaeometallurgy), the archaeology and history of the Mediterranean and Near East, and reconstructing the management strategies of past societies facing environmental change and resource shortages. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and National Geographic Society.

Professor Clyde Briant is a Professor in the School of Engineering at Brown University. From 1976 to 1994 he was a staff metallurgist at the General Electric Company Corporate Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York. He joined Brown in 1994. He was Dean of Engineering at Brown from 2003-2006 and Vice President for Research from 2006-2013. His primary research activities have been in the field of mechanical properties and microstructures of metallic materials, and he is currently studying the history of technology, particularly the development of the steam turbine industry. He is a Fellow of both ASM International and TMS and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.