University Times

Engineering professor emeritus Joseph H. Magill died Jan. 6, 2011. He was 82.

Magill joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science as an associate professor in 1968, was named professor in 1975 and in 1980 added the titles of adjunct professor of chemistry and professor of chemical and petroleum engineering. He was named professor emeritus in 1990.

In 1974, Magill was awarded the University’s Materials Engineering Citation for Excellence in Scholastic Achievement.

Former student Richard Pro of Raleigh, N.C., said it was a privilege studying under Magill.

“I will never forget the enthusiasm with which he approached teaching,” Pro said. “Dr. Magill also took the time to counsel me with respect to my own educational career and, for years afterward, never failed to ask my father about me when they occasionally met at the U.S. Bureau of Mines research facility. I have had the extreme good fortune to have had a handful of exceptional teachers/mentors in my life that instilled a lifelong love of learning, and Dr. Magill was counted among those few.”

Magill received a BSc, PhD and DSc from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. As an undergraduate at Queen’s University, he was awarded a Foundation Scholarship.

He also held a diploma from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, where he spent two years as a research associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Thermodynamics.

Magill’s research activities focused on crystallization and morphogenesis in polymers, small molecules and their physical property relationships.

Magill taught graduate courses in polymers, including in topics such as morphology-crystallization and physical properties; polymer stability and degradation, and aspects of polymer processing.

At the undergraduate level, he taught courses in polymerization, materials science and X-ray diffraction.

Magill spent a sabbatical year in 1975-76 on a Research Council senior fellowship at the H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory at the University of Bristol, U.K. In 1984-85, he won the Alexander Von Humboldt Senior Research Award at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, University of Mainz, and at the Technical University, Hamburg, Germany. In May 1988 and June 1989, he was a visiting professor at the University of Yamagata, Japan.

Magill also spent four years as a research fellow on polymer research at Mellon Institute.

During 1991-93, he served as Office of Naval Research liaison scientist in materials science at the ONR London office.

Magill also had experience outside academia, working with Chemstrand Corp. and Imperial Chemical Industries, U.K.

He was a fellow and chartered chemist of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London; a fellow of the American Physical Society, and a member of the American Chemical Society.

He wrote or co-authored more than 200 papers and book chapters and lectured nationally and internationally.

Magill is survived by his wife, Joyce E. Magill; a daughter, Annesley Hackathorn; a son, Aylmer C. Magill; grandchildren, Connor, Austin, Cameron, Claire and Catherine, and siblings James, Eileen, Maureen and Jean.

The family suggests memorial contributions be made to Mt. Lebanon United Methodist Church, Friends of Music, 3319 West Liberty Ave., Pittsburgh 15216.

—Peter Hart