Professor Tom Eagar a world-renowned metallurgist, welding engineer and former head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), died on 9th October 2022. He will be missed greatly.
He was an outstanding scientist, engineer and teacher and enjoyed quoting historical people and using back-of-the-envelope calculations. Before embarking on his career, he was an altar boy assisting the priest in celebrating mass. He said his prayers in Latin. He earned his B.S. and Ph.D. in Metallurgical and Material Science in 1972 and 1976 both at MIT. After 2 years at Bethlehem Steel Corporation, he joined the DMSE as a faculty member and served as a department head from 1995 to 2000. Tom had a reputation for saying ‘provocative things’ (as he put it) about institutions, research and academia, based on his deeply held principles about integrity and truth.
Tom contributed to the development of the science of welding, his mantras were
Be quantitative
Keep the analysis simple
Be observant
Be flexible in analysis method
Be critical, question your assumptions
Develop a holistic vision
Blend both experiments and analysis
My interaction with Tom goes back to 1980 through the Department of Energy/Basic Energy Sciences. Tom contributed extensively to a wide variety of fields in welding including arc physics, welding processes, weld modelling, vapourisation, solidification, slag metal reactions, welding metallurgy, joining of ceramics and ceramics to metals and brazing and soldering. He strongly held the opinion that ‘scientist discovers that which exists, an engineer creates that which never was’ (Theodore Von Karman). He was an outstanding engineer, and worked with several industries as a consultant.
As an example of his approach of breadth of analysis, consider the collapse of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, one of the greatest tragedies to befall our country. Widespread speculation was that the structurally deficient and steel columns melted; fire prevention equipment failed to operate. Though not structural engineer, he gave his perspective on the incident from the metallurgical engineering point of view. According to him, the steel columns could not have melted in the flame that followed the impact of the plane with the tower. Tom’s calculation showed that fire was the principal cause of collapse. The flame temperature after the impact of the plane with the building could not have been high enough to melt steel, but it was sufficient to soften the steel and non-uniform temperature caused residual stresses
Tom was an outstanding teacher as reflected by the sentiments of his students. ‘His defining characteristics was that he would go to bat for his colleagues and students no matter what the personal or political cost was’ ‘Eagar was a protector of the little guy’ (Jonathan Paras).
He published extensively and gave a number of presentations, some of which were definitely thought provoking. He won several awards from number of professional societies. Prof. Eager was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his contributions to the theory and practices of welding in 1997 and he was a fellow of several professional societies.
The welding and the Metallurgical and Materials community will miss him immensely and Prof. Eagar was a most unforgettable character.