Frederick Brian Pickering, AMet, DMet, FIMMM, CEng, FREng (17 March 1927 - 27 February 2017) was an English

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

. His research and development activities contributed significantly to the creation of stronger and lighter

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

s. His notable research and development throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s laid the foundations for much of the physical metallurgy of high strength, low

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which in most cases at least one is a metal, metallic element, although it is also sometimes used for mixtures of elements; herein only metallic alloys are described. Metallic alloys often have prop ...

steels. His ''Physical Metallurgy and the Design of Steels'' (, originally published in 1978 by Applied Science Publishers, London), continues to be recommended reading for the majority of metallurgical

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

and

materials science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...

university courses. He was born in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, in 1927, and was the cousin of footballer Jack Pickering. He joined the Central Research Department of the United Steel Companies as a junior assistant in the Physics Section in 1943 where he progressed to research assistant, senior metallographer and research supervisor, and then head of the Physical Metallurgy Section. Following the nationalisation of the steel companies in 1967, he became Assistant Research Manager and then Research Manager in Physical Metallurgy, and finally Product Metallurgy Research Manager at the Swinden Laboratories of British Steel Corporation. In 1972 he was appointed Reader in Metallurgy at Sheffield City Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University), becoming Emeritus

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

in 1989. Pickering was awarded the Sidney Gilchrist Thomas Medal in 1968, and the Sir Robert Hadfield Medal in 1971, both from the

Iron and Steel Institute The Iron and Steel Institute was a British association originally organized by the iron trade of the north of England. Its object was the discussion of practical and scientific questions connected with the manufacture of iron and steel. History The ...

. He was also awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal in 1994 for outstanding services to the steel industry, by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (now IOM3). He was appointed a

Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and Scholarship, fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in United K ...

in 1987. He authored over 160 research publications throughout his career. He died in 2017, survived by his wife and three children.

References

1927 births 2017 deaths People from Sheffield English scientists English metallurgists English engineers Bessemer Gold Medal Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining {{England-engineer-stub