Alan Taub

Tim and Steve talk with Professor Alan Taub, the director of the University of Michigan EV Center and former Vice President of General Motors, director of global R&D for GM for 20 years.Bio:Alan Taub joined the faculty of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan in the Fall of 2012. In this role, Taub is conducting research in advanced materials and processing.  He founded and served as CTO of the Manufacturing USA Institute Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (LIFT), founded the Michigan Materials Research Institute and serves as the director of the newly formed University of Michigan Electrical Vehicle Center.  Taub retired from General Motors in April 2012. Prior to retirement, he was vice president, Global Research & Development, leading GM’s advanced technical work activity, seven science laboratories around the world including the Israel Advanced Technology Center, and seven global science offices.  He joined GM R&D as executive director in 2001 and was named vice president in 2009.  Taub advises several startups including C2a and X2F, is technical advisor for the strategic venture capital fund, Auto Tech Ventures and serves on the Technology and Strategy Committees for Bocar and Master Fluid Solutions. Before joining GM, Taub worked at Ford Motor Company for eight years.  Before that he spent 15 years in research and development at General Electric (GE), where he earned 25 patents. He has also authored more than 80 papers and has 27 patents.Taub received his bachelor’s degree in materials engineering from Brown University and master’s and Ph.D. degrees in applied physics from Harvard University.  Taub was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 and elected to the council for NAE in 2016 and 2019.  He became an SME Fellow in 2019 and a TMS Fellow in 2018.  He served as the Chair for the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT) for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and on advisory boards for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, and the University of California Davis and Berkeley. Among other recognitions and honors, Taub received the 2020 TMS Application to Practice Award and the 2011 Acta Materialia Materials & Society Award.  In 2010, ASM International’s Rocky Mountain Chapter awarded Taub the Charles S. Barrett Medal from.  In 2007, he was invited to give the TMS-50th Anniversary Laureate Lecture.  He received the 2004 Materials Research Society’s Special Recognition Award and the 2002 Woody White Service Award.  Brown University awarded Taub the Engineering Alumni Medal in 2002.  The YouTube video can be found here:https://youtu.be/4f-aPXslEN0Our YouTube channel can be found here:http://www.youtube.com/@Undercooled.MaterialsThis episode is sponsored by the TMS Foundation (https://www.tms.org/TMSFoundation/TMSFoundation/Default.aspx), The Electric Vehicle Center (EVC) at the University of Michigan (https://evc.engin.umich.edu/), and the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).