I
M P A C T
Emerging Work from CTPID
Impact
Fall 2002: Faces of Research
Interview
| Profile | About P-STEP
Welding
the Interests of a Generalist: the Impact of Materials Science
Interview with
Thomas Eagar, Professor of Materials Engineering & Engineering Systems
By Patricia Proven
What intrigues you about
materials science?
Materials are used in our everyday lives and have significant impact on
everything we do, whether it's the production of energy, national security,
or new technology. It's a field that allows you to be involved in virtually
everything, and I like that.
How has the field changed?
The field has become dominated by market-driven forces. Twenty-five years
ago, the metals industry was primary and that has been replaced to a certain
extent. In the 1980s, it was ceramics, and the 1990s, semiconductors.
Now it's bio-materials and pharmaceuticals. Hiring is much broader-based.
It used to be traditional industries, like steel companies, that hired
students. It's changing now so that industries are coming to MIT and hiring
students just because they're bright students who know something about
technology. The educational curriculum is lagging about 15 to 20 years,
so that the skills and the tools that students need for these new jobs
aren't there.
What's exciting about studying
at MIT through these changes?
The quality of the students and faculty. Right before I became tenured,
it was clear to me that I wasn't going to go to another university. There
are only a few that have a comparable quality of students.
Intellectual diversity. It's
difficult to find a topic other than agriculture that isn't discussed
at MIT. And the people who do the work are usually high caliber. You can
trust what goes on and build off that trust. What really drives me is
the ability to learn something new all the time. As a management style,
I am a generalist. I expect students to use their creativity to fill in
the details, and that's the key to the success that I've had: to draw
best in the students (and the students are very good).
What are you working on now?
Ceramic-metal bonding, the estimation of engineering systems, a ceramic-metal
bonding technology to turn gas to liquids, and a new type of metal composite
material. All have different students, different funding, different sponsors.
Have you been able to see
applications of your research?
About 10 to 12 years ago, the John Deere Company wanted to minimize welding
fumes in the environment. They were able to reduce the fumes by 70 to
80 percent using an idea I suggested. Several companies are using patents
based on my research at MIT.
How does P-STEP, a venture
in risk management, build upon your earlier work in materials science?
The problems in P-STEP have to do with production and manufacture of materials,
and these processes have a lot to do with environmental problems today.
By changing these processes, we can reduce the impact on the environment
or use it to clean up the environment.
What has P-STEP accomplished
in the past year?
We've had a workshop and produced a white paper. We've had a few projects
funded, but not as many as we'd like. Industry is not stepping up to fund
the projects. The government is no longer putting any pressure on the
industries and the industries are backing off. Many people have a political
agenda and the hardest part is getting them to listen to one another in
a rational rather than emotional way.
What development do you
anticipate in P-STEP?
We've put out some feelers. We can't point to any new projects yet. It's
at a standstill until there is a more pressing need to address environmental
problems.
In a recent Journal of
Metals article, you described your epiphany about what had transpired
structurally to the World Trade Center after the two planes hit. How has
this realization affected your work?
It's had some influence on my teaching. There were a lot of unquantified,
unsubstantiated comments flying around in the press…that the heat
melted the steel…and I felt it necessary to explain things that a
good high school student could understand. I spent three hours developing
that paper, which is less time than I've spent on any other paper ever
published, but I received more comments on it than all the other papers
I've ever written combined. It speaks to how well we're communicating
with our non-science peers. In classes now, I teach that it's important
in whatever you're doing to be quantitative, to estimate numbers, and
to try to explain things to the general non-science population.
Would you describe this
as a revelation in your teaching philosophy?
The revelation in my teaching philosophy was in 1988 when I took the Sloan
Program for Senior Executives, a nine-week intensive workshop in which
Lester Thurow gave two presentations. I would analyze why so many more
people paid attention to his lectures than to other speakers. He didn't
say things I didn't already know; it was the way he said it. After that,
I started looking for sound bites for my conferences, started talking
more about general problems rather than narrow problems, and used provocative
quotes to keep people's attention.
Can you remember a turning
point in your research career?
The turning point in my research career came in 1980 when the Navy gave
me $400,000 so I could do whatever I wanted to do. But I was responsible
to somebody for it. I had to show what I had done was of value to the
Navy. When you study things in engineering, you also have an underlying
goal that it will be socially useful. Basically they wanted me to study
the fundamental physics of welding. The welding course that I teach now
is the outgrowth of that.
What is the core curiosity
that runs through your work?
Welding allows me to work in almost anything I want. I consider myself
a dilettante. Philosophically, I don't like to work in popular areas.
It's easier to find the prize if you're not looking in the same place
as everyone else. I like to look at problems that no one else considers
to be important and to demonstrate why they are important.
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Thomas
Eagar in Profile
Thomas W. Eagar chooses his
problems carefully. "It's easier to find the prize if you're not
looking the same place as everyone else," he said. "I like to
look at problems that no one else considers to be important and to demonstrate
why they are important."
So Eagar primarily has focused
on problems of welding and joining. However, an increasing amount of his
work involves other aspects of materials manufacturing and engineering
systems. He says that improvements in the reliability of fabricated materials
require a better understanding of the physics and the chemistry of the
processes that are used. Eagar also co-directs MIT's year-old P-STEP program,
a risk management venture focused on solving environmental and ethical
dilemmas through industry changes.
Eagar received his SB in Metallurgy
from MIT in 1972 and his ScD Metallurgy in 1975. Eagar worked as research
engineer at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation from 1974 to 1976, developing
new steel for natural gas carriers. He returned to MIT in 1976 as assistant
professor of Materials Engineering then worked as associate professor
of Materials Engineering from 1980 to 1987. During a two-year sabbatical
in 1984-1985, he worked as liaison scientist at the US Office of Naval
Research in Tokyo.
Recent projects of Eagar's
lab group, the Materials Joining Laboratory, have included the effects
of welding fume on workers' health; design, forming, and assembly of auto
body parts; and methods for successful product design and development.
Currently, five grad students, a post-doctoral, and a research engineer
comprise the group.
Eagar teaches Welding and Joining
Technologies to undergraduates in the fall, with class lectures available
on videotape and materials accessible on the Web (at http://mit.edu/3.37/www/information.shtml).
"I believe videotaping our classes is the way we should teach in
the future," Eagar said. "Live for those who want it live and
available by video at any time for anyone else."
Eagar won best paper awards
on nine of the 190 papers he has published. This fall, he was elected
a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He lives in Belmont,
MA with his wife, Pam, and 13-year-old son, Thomas. The couple has six
other children - four married and two attending college - six grandchildren,
with two more on the way. Eagar has always enjoyed cooking and gardening,
but says that since Oct. 2000, he has spent most of his spare time serving
as bishop to the Jesus Christ Church of Latter Day Saints in Revere.
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About
P-STEP
The Program on Science, Technology,
and Environmental Policy (P-STEP) aims to educate future decision-makers
in government and industry who may better serve society's interests.
P-STEP is co-directed by Prof.
Thomas Eagar and Dr. Joanne Kauffman and based jointly in the Laboratory
for Energy and Environment and the Center for Technology, Policy, and
Industrial Development. The program, founded in 2001, is intended to bridge
the gap between engineering and the social and management sciences and
improve the success of environmental policy.
P-STEP addresses sustainable development and complex environmental systems
through the following aims:
- to analyze specific regulatory
standards to determine the role of engineering sciences in defining
their feasibility, to develop efficient technologies to address environmental
problems, and to propose alternative technologies if appropriate;
- to better understand the
impact of environmental regulations on industrial development and social
progress;
- to educate government and
business decision-makers on technology's role in meeting environmental
goals and devising effective policies and standards; and
- to propose beneficial alternative
regulatory approaches.
For more information, visit p-step.mit.edu.
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