Distinguished for the application of electron optical techniques to the study of defects and their effects on properties in a wide range of metals, alloys ands ceramics. His work was both of scientific and technological importance. He shared in the discovery of prismatic dislocation loops in quenched metals, elucidated the kinetics of condensation of point defects, determined the structure of defect clusters in a number of quenched and irradiated metals, and pioneered the determination of stacking fault energy by observing the shrinkage of faulted prismatic loops. His earlier work on preferred orientation of metals and alloys revealed the importance of stacking fault energy. By elegant in-situ electron microscopy he demonstrated the injection of vacancies into a metal substrate as a result of oxidation. He and his group developed techniques for direct dynamic observations in the high voltage microscope, which have been applied to the deformation behaviour of molybdenum, and have given new results on the nucleation of e-martensite in stainless steels and on recrystallisation in copper. He was the author of a very successful book on Physical Metallurgy.
Professor Raymond Smallman CBE FREng FRS died on 25 February 2015.
Biographical Memoir
Subject groups
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Other
History of science
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Engineering and Materials Science
History of science, Materials science (incl materials engineering), Space technology
