Cyril Stanley Smith 405443 217503088 2008-06-06T09:31:45Z Plindenbaum 2796168 infobox {{for|other persons with the name Cyril Smith|Cyril Smith (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox Engineer |image =Replace_this_image_male.svg |image_size = 150px |caption = {{PAGENAME}} |name = {{PAGENAME}} |nationality = [[England]] |birth_date = [[October 4]], [[1903]] |birth_place = [[Birmingham]], [[England]] |death_date = [[August 25]], [[1992]] |death_place = |education =[[University of Birmingham]]<br/> [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] |spouse = |parents = |children = |discipline = |institutions = |practice_name = |significant_projects = [[Manhattan Project]] |significant_design = |significant_advance =[[metallurgy]]<br/> production of [[nuclear fission|fission]]able [[metal]]s |significant_awards = }} '''Cyril Stanley Smith''' ([[October 4]], [[1903]]&ndash;[[August 25]], [[1992]]) was a renowned [[metallurgy|metallurgist]] and [[History of sciences|historian of science]]. Smith is perhaps most famous for his work on the [[Manhattan Project]] where he was responsible for the production of [[nuclear fission|fission]]able [[metal]]s. Smith was born in [[Birmingham]], [[England]] and studied metallurgy at the [[University of Birmingham]] (BSc) and at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (Sc.D). Following his doctorate Smith took up a research post at the American Brass Company. In 1942 he was called into service at the War Metallurgy Committee hosted in [[Washington]]. He soon transferred to the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] to work on the Manhattan Project. He was awarded the Presidential Medal for these activities in 1946. After the war he founded the [[Institute of Study of Metals]] at the [[University of Chicago]]. On moving to MIT he worked in both the Department of Humanities and the Department of Metallurgy, gaining the title Institute [[Professor Emeritus]]. His focus was to transplant the techniques of metallurgy into the study of the production methods used to create artefacts discovered by [[archaeology|archaelogists]]. Smith later published several works linking the arts with the sciences. He died of cancer in his [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]] home aged 88. He was survived by his wife of sixty years ([[Alice Kimball Smith]], a [[history of science and technology|historian of science]]) and two children. ==References== *[http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1992/sep02/26872.html An obituary from the MIT news office] *[http://kurzweil.mit.edu/archives/VOL_081/TECH_V081_S0024_P001.txt An archived news release from MIT including the announcement of Smith's appointment] *[http://jfi.uchicago.edu/~tten/rainbow/ri.history/Kleppa.history/smith.html A photo of Professor Smith during his time at Chicago] ==Selected works== *''History of Metallography: The Development of Ideas on the Structure of Metals Before 1890'', 1988, ISBN 0-262-69120-5, MIT Press. *''From Art to Science'' 1982, ISBN 0-262-19181-4, MIT Press. *''Search for Structure: Selected Essays on Science, Art and History'' 1981, ISBN 0-262-19191-1, MIT Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Cyril Stanley}} [[Category:1903 births]] [[Category:1992 deaths]] [[Category:Old Dowegians]] [[Category:Metallurgists]] [[Category:Manhattan Project people]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham]] [[Category:Presidential Medal for Merit recipients]] [[Category:People from Birmingham, England]]