Irwin Lachman

Lachman was born on August 2, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, and later moved to and grew up in Jersey Homesteads, New Jersey (later Roosevelt). He attended Upper Freehold Township High School (later renamed Allentown High School),{{Cite web|last=Staff|date=March 14, 2005|title=Research Team from Corning Incorporated Earn Nation's Highest Honor for Accomplishments : University of Utah News Release|url=http://www.unews.utah.edu/p/?r=022106-32|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060903032325/http://www.unews.utah.edu/p/?r=022106-32|archive-date=2006-09-03|access-date=February 14, 2011|website=U of U News Center|quote=Irwin M. Lachman was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1930, but raised in Roosevelt, New Jersey. He graduated in 1948 from Upper Freehold Township High School, now called Allentown High School.}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Irwin M. Lachman, Ph.D: Engineer, Co-Inventor of the Practical Catalytic Converter|url=http://www.engology.com/eng5lachman.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030923160529/https://www.engology.com/eng5lachman.htm|archive-date=2003-09-23|access-date=2015-12-30|website=engology.com|publisher=}} received a B.S. in ceramic engineering from Rutgers University in 1952, and then a M.S. and a Ph.D. in ceramic engineering while at Ohio State University in 1953 and 1955. After serving in the United States Air Force, he worked for Thermo Materials, Inc. and Sandia National Laboratories before joining Corning’s ceramic research department in 1960. Lachman retired in 1994 and pursued his artistic interests by creating monoprints that he exhibited at galleries and shows.{{Cite web |title=Biography of Irwin Lachman |url=https://www.newmexicoearth.com/artshop/lachmanbio.html |access-date=2023-07-09 |website=www.newmexicoearth.com}}

Lachman died in Williamstown, Massachusetts on April 18, 2025, at the age of 94.{{Cite web |title=Irwin M. Lachman, 94 |url=https://www.iberkshires.com/obituaries/16673/IrwinM.Lachman94.html |access-date=2025-05-03 |website=www.iberkshires.com}}

File:President George W. Bush awards the 2003 National Medal of Technology.jpg

At Corning Glass Works, Lachman was a member of the team that invented the first inexpensive, mass-producible catalytic converter for automobiles operating internal combustion engines. In addition to Irwin Lachman, the team consisted of engineer Rodney Bagley and geologist Ronald Lewis. While working at Corning, Irwin Lachman co-invented the ceramic substrate found in almost all catalytic converters, which greatly reduce the amount of harmful pollutants in automotive emissions.

Lachman and his colleagues were critical in developing an efficient and feasible catalytic converter. Lachman realized ceramics could be ideally suited to meet the demands placed on a catalytic converter. The composition he worked on offered better resistance to sudden and extreme temperature fluctuations. Lachman’s fundamental ceramics technology ultimately decreases pollution released into the environment. Their work was a response to the Clean Air Act (1970) and reduced polluting emissions from the combustion process by 95%. Additionally, because the catalyst they used in their invention, platinum, required removing lead from gasoline as an additive, their device offered a secondary benefit to the environment by reducing lead pollution.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Working together in the early 1970s at Corning Inc. in Corning, N.Y., Lachman, Bagley and Lewis all used cellular ceramic technology to create the ceramic honeycomb that became the essential core component of catalytic converters.{{cn|date=February 2020}} Lachman and Lewis worked on the project for two years to develop a new ceramic material that had all the key characteristics they needed: high temperature durability, low thermal expansion, low thermal conductivity at high temperatures, light weight and controlled porosity.{{cn|date=February 2020}}

Lachman, along with Bagley and Lewis, were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002"The Class of 2002: They invented Lasik surgery, seat belts, and aspirin, among other things" By Jim Quinn, Invention and Technology Magazine, Fall 2002, Vol 18, Issue 2. and received the 2003 National Medal of Technology at a White House ceremony."President awards national science and technology medals" from Associated Press in USAToday, March 14, 2005 The team also won the International Ceramics Prize of the Academy for the Advanced Ceramics industry in 1996.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/37643394|title=Role of ceramics in a self-sustaining environment : discussions of the Academy of ceramics Forum '96, Krakow, Poland|date=1997|publisher=Techna|others=R. Pampuch, K. Haberko|isbn=88-86538-13-8|location=Faenza|oclc=37643394}}{{Cite web |date=1996 |title=Ceramics in a Self-Sustaining Environment Discussed at the 2nd Forum of the Academy of Ceramics |url=http://www.waceramics.org/Forum96.pdf |url-status=}} Lachman held 47 U.S. patents, and has authored numerous technical papers.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

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Category:1930 births

Category:2025 deaths

Category:21st-century American engineers

Category:American automotive engineers

Category:National Medal of Technology recipients

Category:People from Roosevelt, New Jersey