Laughlin receives ASM recognition

David Laughlin, Emeritus Alcoa Professor of Physical Metallurgy, recently received the J. Willard Gibbs Phase Equilibria Award from ASM International at their annual meeting, IMAT 2025 (International Materials, Applications, and Technologies).  

Laughlin, who was recognized “for sustained teaching and research on the application of thermodynamics to the MSE, including a textbook and application of the Third law to the proper display of phase diagrams,” retired from the MSE department in 2022 after 48 years of service. ASM International previously honored him as a Fellow of the organization. The award was established in 2007 to recognize outstanding contributions to the field of phase equilibria in honor of J. Willard Gibbs, one of America’s greatest theoretical scientists. 

In addition to an awards ceremony at the meeting, a symposium was held in Laughlin’s honor where CMU faculty Chris Pistorius, Bryan Webler, Vincent Soklaski, Michael Widom, and Jimmy Zhou all presented talks.  

The impact of Laughlin’s legacy was also evident in presentations delivered by his former Ph.D. students, Matt Willard (BS’95, MS’97, PhD’00), En Yang (PhD’10), Sokalski (MS'09, PhD’11), Paul Ohodnicki (MS’06, PhD’08), and Caroline Gorham (PhD'18). William Soffa (BS’61), a long time friend and colleague of Laughlin, also delivered a talk and provided the introduction for his award.  

“It was a pleasure to be among colleagues that I hold in high regard, as well as former students that have gone on to make their own marks in the field of materials science,” said Laughlin.   

Throughout his career, Laughlin’s research has been focused on the investigation of phase transformations and the structure of materials through transmission electron microscopy. He has also studied the magnetic properties and microstructure of soft magnets, hard magnets and magnetic thin films for recording media and heads. He has received 12 patents in the course of his work and also co-authored “Introduction to the Thermodynamics of Materials,” which is considered to be a foundational text for undergraduate students in materials science.