Léon Alexandre Guillet (11 July 1873 – 9 May 1946) was a French metallurgist who studied the properties of metal alloys and developed martensitic and austenitic stainless steels. He served as a professor of metallurgy at the

École Centrale Paris École Centrale Paris (ECP; also known as École Centrale or Centrale) was a French grande école in engineering and science. It was also known by its official name ''École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures''. In 2015, École Centrale Paris mer ...

where he was a director from 1923 and played a key role in putting materials research on a scientific footing. Guillet was born in

Saint Nazaire Saint-Nazaire (; ; Gallo: ''Saint-Nazère/Saint-Nazaer'') is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany. The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean. ...

(Loire Atlantique) and in 1894 he went to the school of art and manufacture where he met Henri Le Chatelier who guided him. His doctoral thesis was on aluminium alloys and the work was done at Dion-Bouton and at Le Chatelier's laboratory in the Ecole des Mines. He then became a consultant at Dion-Bouton and worked with several companies. In 1906 he went to teach metallurgy and became a full professor in 1908 and worked there until 1942 while also consulting in the industry. In 1923 he became director of the school of arts and manufacture where he brought major changes including a foundation in scientific theories in engineering. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he was involved in the design and manufacture of artillery shells. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, in 1939, he was again put in charge of naval artillery at the Ruelle Foundry in Angoulême as honorary artillery lieutenant-colonel. Guillet published his major metallurgical works including ''Traité de métallurgie génerale'' (1922), ''Les méthodes d'étude des alliages métalliques'' (1923), and ''Trempe, recuit, revenue'' (2 volumes, 1928–1931). He examined steels made with nickel, manganese, chromium, tungsten, as well as copper and aluminium alloys. He examined the heat treatment of alloys. Guillet was elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1925, proposed by Le Chatelier. Guillet married Marie Béatrice Edwidge Soulier in 1898 and they had a daughter and a son, Léon Pierre Adolphe Guillet (1908–1991), who also became a metallurgist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guillet, Leon 1873 births 1946 deaths French metallurgists Recipients of the Legion of Honour