Julia Weertman
American materials scientist (1926–2018)
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Julia Randall Weertman (February 10, 1926 – July 31, 2018) was an American materials scientist who taught at Northwestern University as the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.
Julia Randall Weertman | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 10, 1926 |
| Died | July 31, 2018 (aged 92) |
Education
She was the first female student of the College of Science and Engineering at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, where she earned her baccalaureate and graduate degrees.[1][2]
Weertman met her husband Johannes at Carnegie, and both later joined the Northwestern University faculty.[3]
Career
In 1986, Julia Weertman was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.[4] She became the first woman in the United States to lead a materials science department when she was appointed chair of Northwestern's Department of Materials Science and Engineering the next year.[1] Weertman was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1988, "for exceptional research on failure mechanisms in high-temperature alloys."[5] In 1989, she became the first female member of the Board of Directors of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.[6]
Fellowships
She was also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, ASM International, the American Physical Society, and the American Geophysical Union and the first female Fellow of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.[1][7]
Death
Weertman died, aged 92, on July 31, 2018.[1]