ECS President | 1976-1977
Michael J. Pryor was born in Leek, England on March 21, 1925. He received his B.A. in Metallurgy in 1946 and his M.A. and Ph.D. in metallic corrosion in 1949. Dr. Pryor received a postdoctoral Fellowship to the National Research Council of Canada in 1949 and remained on the staff of their Corrosion Section.
In 1953 he joined the Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation’s Department of Metallurgical Research in Spokane, Washington as a Research Engineer. He was concerned with a variety of corrosion problems including stress corrosion and galvanic corrosion studies. In 1956 he was appointed Head of the Basic Physics Group and became principally concerned with the solid-state properties of natural oxide films formed on aluminum in aqueous environments.
Dr. Pryor joined the Metals Research Laboratories of the Olin Corporation in New Haven in 1957 as Chief of the Chemistry and Physics Section. In 1959 he became Chief of the Metallurgy Section. He became Associate Director in 1964 and Director of the Laboratory in 1971. In 1980, he became Vice-President of Metals Research. His work at Olin were principally concerned with new aluminum and copper alloy development and particularly with solid-state transport properties through natural oxide films formed in both aqueous electrolytes and high temperature gaseous oxidation.
Dr. Pryor published 54 papers in the area of corrosion, oxidation, and physical metallurgy. He also received 126 U.S. patents in the field of alloy development and metallurgy.
He joined The Electrochemical Society in 1950 and participated in Local Section, Division, and Society affairs. From 1964 to 1970, he was an officer of the Corrosion Division, becoming Chairman from 1968 to 1970. He served on many Society committees and was Chairman of several: Symposium Subcommittee, Technical Affairs, Ways and Means, New Technology, Education, and Finance. Dr. Pryor was elected Vice-President of the Society in 1973 and President for the year 1976-1977.
Dr. Pryor received the Young Authors’ Prize in 1954, the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Corrosion Division, and was made an Honorary Member of the Society 1n 1981.
He was active in the affairs of other societies: a member of the Corrosion Resistant Materials Committee of AIME, a member of CITCE, and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.
