John Joseph "Jack" Gilman (December 22, 1925 – September 10, 2009) was an American

material scientist 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 scien ...

in the field of mechanical properties of solids. He made major contributions to many areas of the field including

dislocation In materials science, a dislocation or Taylor's dislocation is a linear crystallographic defect or irregularity within a crystal structure that contains an abrupt change in the arrangement of atoms. The movement of dislocations allow atoms to sli ...

behavior of

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

disclination In crystallography, a disclination is a line defect in which there is compensation of an angular gap. They were first discussed by Vito Volterra in 1907, who provided an analysis of the elastic strains of a wedge disclination. By analogy to disloc ...

behavior of

polymer A polymer () is a chemical substance, substance or material that consists of very large molecules, or macromolecules, that are constituted by many repeat unit, repeating subunits derived from one or more species of monomers. Due to their br ...

s, and production of metal glasses.

Life

John J. Gilman was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In 1946, he received both his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering and his Master of Science from the

Illinois Institute of Technology The Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Illinois Tech and IIT, is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the m ...

. In 1952, Gilman received PhD in

physical metallurgy Physical metallurgy is one of the two main branches of the scientific approach to metallurgy, which considers in a systematic way the physical properties of metals and alloys. It is basically the fundamentals and applications of the theory of ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. In 1952, he briefly worked at the Crucible Steel Company of America as a steel researcher and subsequently worked at the

General Electric Research Laboratory General Electric Research Laboratory was the first industrial research facility in the United States. Established in 1900, the lab was home to the early technological breakthroughs of General Electric and created a research and development environ ...

that same year. While working at the General Electric laboratory, he expanded his studies in mechanical properties and the structure of single crystals. After leaving General Electric in 1960, Gilman became a professor of engineering at

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

. He moved to

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

as a professor of physics and metallurgy in 1963. In 1968, he became director of the Materials Research Center at

Allied Chemical Allied Corp. was a major American company with operations in the chemical, aerospace, automotive, oil and gas industries. It was initially formed in 1920 as the Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation as an amalgamation of five chemical companies. In ...

. At Allied, he worked on metallic glasses. In 1978, he became director of the Corporate Development Center. In 1980, he became a research manager at

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

. In 1981, he became a director of Amoco Battery Technology. In 1985, he became a director of the Center for Advanced Materials at

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. In 1987, he became a senior scientist studying the

crystalline structure In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of ordered arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules in a crystalline material. Ordered structures occur from intrinsic nature of constituent particles to form symmetric patterns that repeat ...

and mechanical properties of solids. In 1993, he became an adjunct professor at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

Discoveries

In all, 330 scientific papers were published under his name on topics including metals,

s, glasses,

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

s, diamond and nano-materials. Gilman was editor and co-editor of three books and author of four. His work also resulted in him acquiring several patents including one for rhenium boride compounds to be used as

abrasive An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away by friction. While finishing a material often means polishing it to gain a smooth, reflec ...

s, cutting tools and as

protective coating A coating is a covering that is applied to the surface of an object, or substrate. The purpose of applying the coating may be decorative, functional, or both. Coatings may be applied as liquids, gases or solids e.g. powder coatings. Paints and la ...

s. Gilman is known for his contributions to the field of material science (

s in

s, and new metal glasses). Gilman designed a tetrahedral truss different from

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

's famous 1953 truss in 1981. Gilman attributed the strength of his tetrahedral truss to "the inherent rigidity of the skeletal triangle"John J. Gilman, United States Patents, 1981, Google Patents, Description, p.1 and "the rigidity of the basic tetrahedron".

Honors

For his contributions to

material science A material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geol ...

and research management in industry Professor Gilman received honors and recognitions worldwide.

References

External links

ASM: Tribute to Jack Gilman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilman, John J. 1925 births 2009 deaths People from Green Bay, Wisconsin Illinois Institute of Technology alumni Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni General Electric people Brown University faculty UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty University of Illinois faculty American materials scientists Fellows of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society