DMSE - Faculty - Merton C. Flemings http://dmse.mit.

edu/faculty/faculty/flemings/

Merton C. Flemings

faculty
Professor of Materials
Processing
interest areas
Toyota Professor Emeritus
open positions
SB Metallurgy, MIT, 1951
SM Metallurgy, MIT, 1952
ScD Metallurgy, MIT, 1954

4-415, 77 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139

617-253-3233 (phone)
flemings@mit.edu

Merton C. Flemings received his S.B. degree from

MIT in the Department of Metallurgy in 1951. He
received his S.M. and Sc.D. degrees, also in
Metallurgy, in 1952 and 1954, respectively. From
1954 to 1956, he was employed as Metallurgist at
Abex Corporation, Mahwah, New Jersey, and in
1956 returned to MIT as Assistant Professor. He
was appointed Associate Professor in 1961, and
Professor in 1969. In 1970, he was appointed Abex
Professor of Metallurgy. In 1975, he became Ford
Professor of Engineering and, in 1981, Toyota
Professor of Materials Processing. He established
the Materials Processing Center at MIT in 1979
and was its director from 1979 to 1982. He served
as Head, Department of Materials Science and
Engineering, from 1982 to 1995 and thereafter
returned to full-time teaching and research as
Toyota Professor. He was Visiting Professor at
Cambridge University in 1971, Tokyo University in
1986 and at Ecole des Mines de Paris in 1996. He
served as MIT Co-Director of the Singapore-MIT
Alliance, a major distance educational and

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research collaboration among MIT and two

Singaporean universities from 1999-2001. He is
currently Professor of Materials Processing and,
until 2009, served as Director of the Lemelson-MIT
Program, a program at MIT which has as its aims
to honor inventors and to inspire inventiveness in
young people.

Professor Flemings' research and teaching

concentrate on engineering fundamentals of
materials processing, and on innovation of
materials processing operations. He has been
active nationally and internationally in
strengthening the field of Materials Science and
Engineering and in delineation of new directions
for the field. He is a member of the National
Academy of Engineering and of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is author or
co-author of 300 papers, 26 patents, and two
books in the fields of solidification science and
engineering, foundry technology, and materials
processing. . He has worked closely with industry
and industrial problems throughout his
professional career, and currently serves on a
number of corporate and technical advisory
boards. He is member of the board of the Silk
Road Project, a non-profit foundation established
to illuminate contributions of the Silk Road to the
arts and society broadly, and to support innovative
collaborations among artists of the Silk Road and
the West.

He received the Simpson Gold Medal from the

American Foundrymen's Society in 1961, the
Mathewson Gold Medal of TMS in 1969, the Henry
Marion Howe Medal of ASM International in 1973,
and became a Fellow, ASM International in 1976.
In 1977, he was awarded the Henri Sainte-Claire
Deville Medal by the Societe Francaise de
Metallurgie. In October 1978, he received the
Albert Sauveur Achievement Award from ASM
International. In 1980, he received the John
Chipman Award from AIME. In 1984, he was
elected an honorary member of the Japan
Foundrymen's Society, and in 1985 received the
James Douglas Gold Medal from the AIME. The
Italian Metallurgical Association awarded him the
Luigi Losana Gold Medal in 1986, and he was
elected honorary member of The Japan Iron and
Steel Institute in 1987. He was elected a TMS

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Fellow in 1989. In 1990, he received the TMS

Leadership Award, the Henry Marion Howe Medal,
and delivered the Edward DeMille Campbell
Memorial Lecture of ASM International. In 1991,
he received the Merton C. Flemings Award from
Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Sigma Alpha Mu
elected him a Distinguished Life Member in 1992.
In 1993, he received the TMS 1993 Bruce
Chalmers Award and was elected Councillor of
Materials Research Society. He was served on the
ASM International Board of Trustees, 1994-1997.

Professor Flemings received the Acta Metallurgica

J. Herbert Holloman Award in 1997 for
"contributions to materials technology that have
had major impact on society". Also in 1997 he was
appointed David Turnbull Lecturer of the Materials
Research Society for "outstanding contributions to
understanding materials phenomena and
properties". He received the Educator Award of
TMS in 1999. Also in 1999 he received the FMS
(Federation of Materials Societies) National
Materials Advancement Award, for “outstanding
capabilities in advancing the effective and
economic use of materials and the multi-
disciplinary field of materials science and
engineering generally, and for contributions to the
application of the materials profession to national
problems and policy.” He was awarded the ASM
and TMS Distinguished Lectureship in Materials
and Society for the year 2000, for the “invention of
numerous new solidification technologies which are
widely used industrially, and for leadership in
defining the national agenda in materials science
and engineering.”

In 2002, he was appointed Honorary Foreign

Member, Korean Academy of Science and
Technology, and two endowed chairs were
established in his name at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. He was awarded an
honorary doctorate by the Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology in Lausanne, in 2004 for "his role as
pioneer and for his exceptional scientific
contributions in the field of solidification and
foundry." In 2005 he received the Gold Medal of
the Japan Institute of Metals. He also received in
2005 the Albert Easton White Distinguished
Teacher Award from ASM, “in recognition of
unusually long and devoted service in teaching as

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DMSE - Faculty - Merton C. Flemings http://dmse.mit.edu/faculty/faculty/flemings/

well as significant accomplishments in materials

science and engineering and an exceptional ability
to inspire and impart enthusiasm to students.”

He was elected Honorary Member of AIME in 2006,

“for his pioneering work in solidification processing,
for the development of novel processes which are
used commercially, for his leadership in expanding
the field of metallurgy to materials engineering, and
to materials science and engineering, and for his
leadership in establishing a national agenda for the
field of materials.”

Selected Publications

Solidification Processing, McGraw-Hill, New York,

(1974).

"Solidification Science and Engineering Practice,"

MRS David Turnbull Lecture, MRS Bulletin, 23
(1998) 30–36.

“Materials Education for the New Century.” MRS

Bulletin, 26 (November 2001) 918–924. With S.
Suresh.

Encyclopedia of Materials Science and

Technology, Elsevier, London (2001). Edited with
K.H.J Buschow, R.W. Cahn, B. Ilschner, E.J.
Kramer, S. Mahajan.

“Evolution of Particle Morphology in Semisolid

Processing.” R.A. Martinez and M.C. Flemings”
Metallurgical and Materials Transactions, 36A (
2005) 2205.

“Traveling Technologies,” Along the Silk Road, E.

ten Grotenhuis Ed., University of Washington
Press (2002) 107–121.

Prof. Michael Cima named faculty director of

Lemelson-MIT Program
Posted on: December 10, 2008 10:30:51 am
The Lemelson-MIT Program has announced
that Michael J. Cima, the Sumitomo Electric
Industries Professor of...

Older News

An article in the Boston Globe, of June 16,

2006, "Inventing by trial, error and teamwork"

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DMSE - Faculty - Merton C. Flemings http://dmse.mit.edu/faculty/faculty/flemings/

by Naila F. Moreira read: "We see it very

much as MIT's mission to promote
inventiveness and creativity among kids,"
said Merton C. Flemings, an engineering
professor at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and director of the
Lemelson-MIT Program, which recognizes
and supports invention.
On November 13, 2005, the New York Times
summarized Prof. Flemings concerns about
America’s future innovativeness. In the Jan.
23, 2005 "Starts and Stops" column of the
Boston Globe, Prof. Flemings described the
"a-ha" moment when he understood what
determines a microstructure in cast metals.
Prof. Flemings was quoted in a Tech Talk
article on Americans' perception of
technology—most Americans value the
toothbrush over other, more recent,
innovations. He was interviewed by the
Wisconsin State Journal for a Jan. 14, 2004
story on historic firsts.

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