A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Jack H. Westbrook
Born in Troy, New York in 1924, Dr. Jack H. Westbrook graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1944 with a bachelor of science degree in metallurgical engineering, served two years in the U. S. Navy, and then obtained a master of science in metallurgical engineering from RPI in 1947 and a doctor of science degree from MIT in 1949. He joined General Electric in 1949 at their research and development center, where he was affiliated successively with the general physics lab, metallurgy and ceramics lab, program planning operation, and the physical chemistry lab. In 1971, he was named manager, materials information services, which was then a unit of GE's corporate consulting service but in 1974 transferred to corporate research and development.
Dr. Westbrook completed his career at GE as a consultant to the technical management programs, with corporate engineering and manufacturing. He retired in 1985, and immediately established, with a former GE colleague, a consulting firm, Sci-Tech Knowledge Systems, Inc. The company specialized in studies of numeric database organization and computer-based knowledge systems for industry, education, and government. His research work on intermetallic compounds, grain boundaries, and surface effects in solids, won him numerous national and international awards, including the Turner Award from the Electrochemical Society, the Sauveur and Geisler awards from the American Society for Materials, as well as that organization's Campbell Lecture and Jeffries Lecture distinctions.
Dr. Westbrook also received the Templin award from the American Society for Testing and Materials; the New England Regional Conference Award from the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers; the Hofmann Prize from the Lead Development Association; and a National Academy of Sciences traveling fellowship to the former Soviet Union. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a fellow of five professional societies: the American Society for Materials, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Institute for Chemistry, Institute of Physics (UK), and American Ceramics Society. He is also an active member of several others, usually serving on their editorial boards or transactions committees. He is the author or coauthor of more than one hundred and eighty technical papers on a variety of metals, ceramics, glass, minerals, and semiconductors, has edited twenty-four books, published more than one hundred book reviews, and translated a German thermodynamics book. Dr. Westbrook holds six patents on materials and materials processing.
In the information field, Dr. Westbrook is past chairman of the commission on industrial data for the International Council for Science (ICSU) Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA); past chairman of the U. S. National CODATA Committee; former member of the International CODATA Executive Committee; member of ASTM Committee E49 on Computerization of Materials Data; a former trustee of Engineering Information, Inc.; a former director of Materials Property Databases, Inc.; past chairman, Materials Information Committee of the Federation of Materials Societies; and a consultant to the Materials Property Council, NSF, and NIST on computerized materials data systems. He also has been editor-in-chief of the proceedings of two recent workshops on the computerization of materials data systems for engineering.
Over the years he has served his community in many ways. Dr. Westbrook served as chairman of the 1952 Red Cross Fund Drive; as president of the Saratoga County Historical Society from 1965 through 1966; as president of the Rotary Club of Ballston Spa in 1972; as president of the board of education of Ballston Spa School District from 1975-1976; and also as president of the Investment Club 21 from 2001through 2006. He is owner and principal consultant with Brookline Technologies at Ballston Spa, New York, which he founded in 1991. The firm is engaged in consulting and contract activities related to materials selection and application, data capture for building databases, terminology standardization, data compilation, and identification and indexing of numeric data sources. As an avocation, he is an active student of the history of science and technology and has published extensively in this area, particularly on materials development, industrial activity, and biographical sketches. He has five adult children with Elizabeth Kirkland (now deceased), and is presently married to Jeanette (Sylvain) Hughson.
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