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Author Q&A Session: David E. Laughlin

 

We are pleased to share with you our Author Q and A session with David E. Laughlin. Laughlin discusses his latest title 'Introduction to the Thermodynamics of Materials, 6e' and what motivated him to write it.

1. Congratulations on the publication of your book! What lead you to writing it?
The fifth edition of the text was nearing a decade old so I was happy to respond affirmatively to the invitation to update the text.
 

2. Can you describe your book in one sentence?
A basic text in applying the fundamentals of chemical thermodynamics to the field of materials science.
 

3.  Who would be interested in reading your book?
It can be used as an undergraduate text in thermodynamics as well as an introduction for graduate students that have not had such a course in their undergraduate experience.
 

4. What makes your book stand out from its competitors?
It is on its sixth edition, which in itself, is rare for a thermos book. It introduces the student to the topics in a systematic fashion and has many solved problems as well as problems at the end of each chapter.


5. What is your academic background?
I was trained as a Metallurgist (B.Sc. Drexel University and Ph.D. MIT).
 

6. Do you have any events lined up? Attending any conferences?
Always attending conferences! MS&T 2017 and MMM 2017
 

7. Are there any relevant world issues that your book relates to at the moment?
Well everyone tries to get on the energy bandwagon. That is the topic of the first law of thermodynamics (the energy of the universe is conserved). But I really try to stick with the fundamentals of the topic and stay away from current issues which may only distract the students from learning the subject.
 

8. Do you have plans for future books? What’s next in the pipeline for you?
I may try my hand at an introduction to ferroic materials text or a monograph on phase transformations.


9. Have you read any Taylor & Francis books? If so, which is your favourite T&F book at the moment?
Introduction to Materials Science by Gaskell, 5e! And I use Bob DeHoff’s text on thermodynamics in the graduate thermodynamics course that I teach.
 

10. What motivated you to write the new edition and how is the new edition different from your previous book?
The fifth edition was nearly ten years old. After David Gaskells’ death I was asked to update the text. I added my personal flavour to the text: applications to phase transformations and the use of thermodynamics to study magnetic materials.
 

11. Which was the most unusual reading which you curated for this book?
I did go back and read (and purchase) several classic thermodynamics books including:
1. Nernst’s 'The New heat Theorem' (1926 translation)
2. Planck’s 'Treatise on Thermodynamics'
3. Lewis and Randall’s 'Thermodynamics: The Free Energy of Chemical Substances' (first edition)
 

12. Tell us an unusual fact about yourself and your teaching.
I am entering my 44th year of teaching at Carnegie Mellon. I try to assuage the students fear of entropy!


13. What is your favourite example in the book?
That in an isolated environment the spontaneous freezing of a supercooled liquid to an ordered crystal is entropy! This gets the students thinking about what entropy really is and that it has many aspects other than order! 
 

14. Tell us an unusual fact about yourself and your book.
I used the first edition in teaching my first thermos class at Carnegie Mellon in 1975. And I still have my handwritten lecture notes from the class!
 

15. What sparked your particular interest in this field of study?
Understanding entropy and the physical aspects of materials.
 

16. What made you want to come on board with this project?
The fact that I used the first edition of the text in the first thermodynamics class that I taught at Carnegie Mellon!


17. What, in particular, excites you about this new edition?
The addition of magnetic terms to the fundamental laws of thermodynamics. In teaching courses on magnetism I have noticed that most students have never thought about how a magnetic field may change the equilibrium states of materials.
 

18. How do you think the field of Thermodynamics is evolving today? What are some ongoing controversies?
This text is on equilibrium thermodynamics. 
(i) For nearly nearly 70 years non-equilibrium thermodynamics has been evolving. Before one studies non-equilibrium one must be grounded in equilibrium thermodynamics.
(ii) Also 'nano-materials' brings with it some difficulties as the effect of size changes many aspects of thermodynamic equilibrium.
(iii) Computational courses are all the rage these days. This text is a prerequisite to all such thermodynamics courses so that the black box of computation will be transparent to those who have mastered this 'Introduction'.
 

19. When you were first starting out in your studies, what did you personally find to be the most challenging aspect?
Thermodynamics!
 

20. What do you think is the future for the Materials industry?
It is great. Every gadget or device is made of a material! We Materials Scientists are in the business of improving materials. And thermodynamics is at the core of materials research!

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David E. Laughlin

David is the ALCOA Professor of Physical Metallurgy in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of CMU and also has a courtesy appointment on the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. He was the Principal Editor of Metallurgical and Materials Transactions from 1987 to 2016. David is a graduate of Drexel University (1969) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1973). He is a Fellow of TMS, an Honorary member of AIME, and a Fellow of ASM International. He is also the recipient of several CMU awards for teaching and research excellence and a Distinguished Scientist of the TMS Electronic, Magnetic & Photonic Materials Division. He has authored more than 400 technical publications in the field of phase transformations, physical metallurgy, and magnetic materials, and has edited or coedited seven books including the fifth edition of Physical Metallurgy, and has been awarded 12 patents.

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