Governance

James B. Austin retired in 1968 as Administrative Vice President, Research and Technology, for the U.S. Steel Corporation in Pittsburgh, after more than 40 years with the Corporation. He was graduated from Lehigh University with a degree in chemical engineering, and received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Yale University in 1928. He joined U.S. Steel in the same year, serving his first twelve years as a physical chemist at the Corporation's Research Laboratory in Kearny, New Jersey. He became Supervisor of Chemistry in 1941, was named Director of Research in 1946, and was appointed Vice President, Research and Technology in 1954. In 1956 he became Vice President, Fundamental Research, and was appointed two years later to the position he held when he retired from U.S. Steel.

Dr. Austin served as President of the American Society for Metals in 1954, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, an honorary member of the Japan Iron and Steel Institute, and an honorary Vice President of the Iron and Steel Institute of London.

Dr. Austin was the Henry Krumb Lecturer in 1969, the Howe Memorial Lecturer in 1970, and received the AIME Benjamin Fairless Award in 1969. He is a Fellow of The Metallurgical Society of AIME.