Lab scientist named vice president of materials society

Patrice Turchi, a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will be installed as the 2014 vice president of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) in February.

Turchi, who is the group leader of LLNL's Materials Science Division of the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, will assume his new role at TMS during the organization's 2014 Annual Meeting & Exhibition in San Diego from Feb. 16-20.

A member of TMS for more than 25 years, Turchi hopes to advance the society's main priorities as vice president. His vice presidency is part of the organization's three-year presidential cycle. Turchi will ascend to president in 2015.

"My overarching goal is to work with our dedicated volunteers to promote the TMS mission from within as well as at the national and international levels, so that the TMS motto -- learn, network and advance -- is enhanced and truly experienced by the scientific community," he said.

During his tenure at TMS, Turchi served on the board as chair of the Electronic, Magnetic & Photonic Materials Division. He has chaired TMS' Alloy Phases Committee and various administrative committees. He has been a member of several TMS technical advisory groups, a contributor to several recent TMS reports, and organizer of 15 symposia for TMS, three symposia for the Materials Research Society and eight international conferences.

Turchi is co-founder of the International Alloy Conference, chair of the Alloy Phase Diagram Committee at ASM International and a member of the Alloy Phase Diagram International Commission. TMS is a member-driven international professional society dedicated to fostering the exchange of learning and ideas across the entire range of materials science and engineering, from minerals processing and primary metals production, to basic research and advanced applications of materials. Its 12,000 members include professionals and students who are metallurgical and materials engineers, scientists, researchers, educators, and administrators from more than 70 countries on six continents. TMS interests range from minerals processing and primary metals production to basic research and the advanced applications of materials.

Turchi received a Ph.D. in solid-state physics and a Ph.D. in materials science in France from the University of Paris VI after obtaining his engineering diploma from Paris' National Superior School of Chemistry. He was a professor at the University of Paris VI for 11 years, a visiting scientist at UC Berkeley for one year, and has worked at Lawrence Livermore for more than 27 years.

His research focuses on computational materials science and condensed matter physics with an emphasis on alloy theory from first-principles electronic structure, and stability and physical properties of complex assemblies.

Turchi has given more than 310 presentations, authored or co-authored more than 285 publications, sits on the review boards of several scientific journals and has received several professional honors and awards.