The Electronic, Magnetic, and Photonic Materials Division of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) has named Professor David Laughlin the recipient of its 2009 Distinguished Scientist/Engineer Award. In addition to receiving this award, Laughlin's overall contributions to the field of magnetic materials were honored at the Materials Science and Technology Conference in Pittsburgh, USA, held 25-29 October 2009.
David Laughlin has taught at Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, for the past 36 years. "I have the best possible job, namely teaching young and bright students the fundamentals of materials science," the professor of physical metallurgy commented. Laughlin is the long-time editor of the Springer journals Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A and B, published in collaboration with TMS, ASM International, and The Materials Information Society.
Laughlin was drawn to research in magnetic materials in the late 1980s when he started working on the microstructure property relationships of magnetic recording media. He is one of the pioneers who brought materials science concepts, namely crystallography and phase diagrams, to the studies of recording media. His broad research activities on magnetic materials have led to several important patents on the control of crystallographic texture of magnetic recording media, which has been widely used in the production of current hard drives.
Headquartered in the United States but international in both its membership and activities, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society is a professional organization that promotes the global science and engineering professions concerned with minerals, metals and materials.