William L. Johnson, California Institute of Technology

Profile photo of William L. Johnson, expert at California Institute of Technology

Applied Physics and Materials Science Professor Pasadena, California wlj@caltech.edu Office: (626) 395-4433

Bio/Research

William L. Johnson, the Ruben and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science at Caltech, joined the Caltech faculty in 1977. He received his B.A. in physics from Hamilton College and his Ph.D. in applied physics from Caltech. He spent two years at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center (1975-77...

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Bio/Research

William L. Johnson, the Ruben and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science at Caltech, joined the Caltech faculty in 1977. He received his B.A. in physics from Hamilton College and his Ph.D. in applied physics from Caltech. He spent two years at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center (1975-77) prior to joining the faculty at Caltech.

His research has lead to commercial success. He is an inventor on over 25 issued patents. He is a cofounder of Liquidmetal Technologies, in Lake Forrest California, which commercialized one of Professor Johnson's BMG alloys for golf club heads (under the company name "LiquidMetal Golf"). The company is now pursuing opportunities in cases for electronic devices. They are also expanding into the defense industry, as some of the BMG composites have demonstrated properties superior to depleted uranium as high-velocity penetrators.

Professor Johnson served on the editorial board of the Journal of Rapid Solidification, and serves currently as an associate editor for Journal of Applied Physics, and Applied Physics Letters. He is a principal editor of the MRS Journal of Material Science. He is author or co-author of over 230 publications in the scientific literature, and has contributed chapters to seven books. He has held numerous consulting positions for the Department of Energy, NASA, and corporations. Over the past two decades, he has been a consultant and on numerous advisory panels for the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Engineering.



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