Background
Turnbull, David was born on February 18, 1915 in Elmira, Illinois, United States. Son of David and Luzetta Agnes (Murray) Turnbull.
chemist engineer materials scientist metallurgist physicist university professor
Turnbull, David was born on February 18, 1915 in Elmira, Illinois, United States. Son of David and Luzetta Agnes (Murray) Turnbull.
Bachelor of Science, Monmouth College, Illinois, 1936. Doctor of Science (honorary), Monmouth College, Illinois, 1958. Doctor of Philosophy, University Illinois, 1939.
Master of Arts (honorary), Harvard University, 1962. Doctor of Science (honorary), Case-Western Reserve University, 1990. Doctor of Science (honorary), Claude Bernard University, Lyon, France, 1993.
Turnbull made seminal contribution to solidification theory and glass formation. He was on the faculty of Case Institute of Technology from 1939 to 1946. In 1946, he joined the General Electric research laboratory, performing research into nucleation of structural transformations occurring during the solidification of liquid metals, demonstrating that such complex processes could be quantitatively understood.
Using a low-melting-point metal, mercury, Turnbull determined that the small supercoolings usually seen were the result of heterogeneous catalysts in the melt.
The previously empirical study of metal solidification was provided a consistent scientific foundation. Turnbull and his General Electric colleagues developed metal alloy processing.
Turner and I. South. Servi developed homogeneous nucleation theory for a solid-solid transformation, providing the technologically important basis for strengthening metallic alloys through precipitation hardening. With Morrel Cohen, he developed the free volume theory for fluid flow.
In 1950, Turnbull formulated a criterion for the ease of glass formation from supeercooled melts with a high viscosity by rapid solidification.
Independently and simultaneously to Cohen, he predicted the formation of metallic glass phases from sufficiently fast cooling of an alloy melt with a deep eutectic. This was demonstrated by Political Duwez at Caltech in 1959, who produced thin micron-sized sheets of an Au-Si alloy using a very high cooling rate (approximately 106 K/s). H. South. Chen showed in 1971 that mm-sized glassy rods (so-called "bulk metallic glass," or BMG) of Pd-Cu-Si could be produced by suction casting with a cooling rate of 1000 K/son
In 1982, Turnbull then demonstrated that a bulk metallic glass could be produced in the Pd-Ni-P system with a cooling rate as low as 100 K/son
In 1962, Turnbull joined Harvard University as the Gordon McKay Professor of applied physics, where he taught for 23 years. David Turnbull died on April 28, 2007, at the age of 92, in his house in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Chairman citizens curriculum committee Niskayuna (New York ) Senior High School, 1954. Fellow American Physical Society (International prize new materials 1983), New York Academy of Sciences, American Society Metals (chairman seminar committee 1954), American Institute Mining and Metallurgical Engineers (lecturer Institute Metals division 1961, Hume-Rothery award 1986, Bruce Chalmers award 1991). Member American Chemical Society, National Academy of Sciences, American Academy Arts and Sciences, American Ceramic Society (honorary).
Married Carol May Cornell, August 3, 1946. Children: Lowell D., Murray M., Joyce M.