William Hume-Rothery

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William Hume-Rothery OBE (1899–1968) was a British metallurgist who studied the constitution of alloys. In his research, he concluded that the microstructure of an alloy depends on the sizes of the component atoms, as well as the valency electron concentration, and electrochemical differences. He founded the Department of Metallurgy at the University of Oxford in the 1950s, and was a fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

[edit] His life

Hume-Rothery was born in Worcester Park, Surrey. He was educated at Oxford University, where he carried out much of his research. He also attended the Royal School of Mines. During World War II, he supervised numerous government contracts for work on aluminum and magnesium alloys.