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RO B E RT I . JAFFE E
1 91 7-1 991
WRITTEN BY JOHN STRINGER
SUBMITTED BY THE NAE HOME SECRETARY
ROBERT ~ JAFFEE a metallurgist of remarkable insight, diec!
on November 2S, 1991, at the age of seventy-four.
Elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1969, Bob
was engaged in alloy development and physical metallurgy
research until his death and made many important contribu-
tions in these fields. He was also closely involved for much of his
life in professional activities, both in the United States and
internationally.
A native of Chicago, Bob graduated from the Armor Institute
of Technology (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1939
with a degree in chemical engineering. He then joined the
School of Metallurgy at Harvard University, receiving his S.M. in
1940. Following this, he was awarded a U.S. Bureau of Mines
fellowship at the University of Maryland, receiving a Ph.D. in
~ 943. He worked briefly at Battelle Memorial Institute in Colum-
bus, Ohio, from 1942 to 1943, but decided in May of 1943 to go
to the University of California, Berkeley, to work on a War Met-
allurgy project on magnesium alloys. It was there he met his wife,
Edna. In 1944 he rejoined Battelle, where he was to spend the
next thirty years, eventually becoming chief materials scientist.
In 1974 Bob "retired" from Battelle and joined the then new
Electric Power Research Institute REPRO. There he developed a
material support activity, retiring as senior technical adviser in 1989.
However, he continued to work with EPRI as a consultantuntil his
89
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go
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
death. He was also a consulting professor in the Department of
Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University.
Bob was active in many metallurgical professional societies.
He was particularly involved in The Metallurgical Society (TMS)
of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petro-
leum Engineers (AIME). He was a director from 1977 to 1980,
and in 1978 he served as the society's president. He was elected
a fellow Of TMS in 1972 and received the lames Douglas Gold
Medal of AIME in 1983 for "distinguished achievements in non-
ferrous metallurgy." Bob was also active in the American Society
for Metals (ASM), of which he was elected a fellow in 1970 and
an honorary member in 1976. He was selected to present the
Edward DeMille Campbell Memorial Lecture of ASM in 1977,
and in 1985 he was selected for the TMS/ASM Joint Distin-
guished Lectureship in Materials and Society. In addition, he
received the Bronze Medal of the American Ordnance Associa-
tion in 1966, and was selected to present the H. W. Gillett
Memorial Lecture of the American Society of Testing and Mate-
rials in 1976. He was appointed fellow of the Institution of
Metallurgists in the United Kingdom in 1967.
He was on the board of governors of Acta Metallurgaca from
1969 and was chairman in 1976. Immediately before his death,
he was selected as the third recipient of the I. Herbert Hollomon
Award of ActaMetallurg~ca, which recognizes outstanding contri-
butions to understanding the interactions between materials
technology and societal interests. He was a member of numerous
committees of the National Academy of Sciences, the National
Research Council, the National Aeronautics and Space Admin-
istration, and the Advanced Group for Aeronautical Research
and Development of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Bob's research activity at Battelle was concerned with nonfer-
rous metals, and in particular, titanium and its alloys. He estab-
lished a worldwide reputation as perhaps the most distinguished
metallurgist in this field. He was the inventor of a large number
of commercially important (particularly for aerospace applica-
tions) titanium alloys and of fabrication methods for titanium
alloys and structures. His interest in titanium metallurgy contin-
ued at EPRI, where he was responsible for the development of a
thermomechanical fabrication route to make large titanium
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ROBERT I. JAFFEE
91
alloy blades for steam turbines. However, at EPRI he also became
an authority on ferrous metallurgy and led an important inter-
national program to develop superclean steels for turbine rotors
and related applications, demonstrating that the control of
minor constituents or impurities in the steed could greatly
improve its toughness and stability. Bob was quick in identifying
a potential materials problem in an advancing technology, or an
opportunity for a useful materials development; and he was
tireless in pursuing it to its solution, irrespective of the obstacles.
The clean steels work demonstrates this characteristic particu-
larlywell; an iclea was taken from the laboratory to installation in
very large machines over a period of perhaps ten years, involving
major technical contributions from England, Germany, and
Japan, as well as the United States. Bob held forty-f~ve U.S.
patents and was author or coauthor of more than three hundred
publications in technical literature.
Bob was also very interested in the communication of knowl-
edge and ideas. While at Battelle he developed the concept of
carefully focused, high-level colloquia on specific topics, with a
limited number of invited participants. These formed the basis
of a series of influential proceedings volumes. The same ap-
proach was also used for a number of specialist workshops at
EPRI, and has been used as a model elsewhere. Bob was editor
of twenty-three books, mostly of this kind.
In addition to his own skills as a researcher, Bob was adept at
assembling groups of talented people to work with him. He
formed a metals science group at Battelle and used a similar
approach to build up a small but effective group of senior
professionals at EPRI. He set high standards for all who worked
with him, and he expected a level of effort similar to his own.
However, he was also extremely supportive of those who passed
his demanding criteria. He also assembled a group of research-
ers from around the world to attack specific technical problems.
He had extensive interactions with colleagues in England, France,
Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and the former USSR, among others.
He was admired, liked, and respected wherever he went. His
enthusiasm for materials research and his uncanny insight (the
mark of a good metallurgist) remained burning brightly to the
end of his life.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
titanium alloys
