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Walter Eric Duckworth | |
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| Born | Walter Eric Duckworth 2 August 1925 Blackburn, Lancashire |
| Died | February 4, 2012 (aged 86) Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire |
| Nationality | British |
| Citizenship | British |
| Alma mater | Queens College, University of Cambridge |
| Occupation(s) | Metallurgist and statistician, then director of the Fulmer Research Institute |
| Organization | Fulmer Research Institute |
| Predecessor | Ted Liddiard |
| Spouse | Emma |
| Children | Stephen |
Walter Eric Duckworth OBE was a metallurgist and statistician who became a pioneer of industrial operational research. [1] [2] [3] Duckworth's first book A Guide to Operational Research [4] was the first description of the industrial use of the operational research techniques that had been developed during World War II.
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Graduating from the University of Cambridge (Queens College), Duckworth joined the Glacier Metal Company in an atmosphere of continuous innovation under Wilfred (later Lord) Brown and alongside Elliott Jaques. [1] Duckworth went on to develop statistical control techniques which helped one factory to triple its production. [1]
His second book Statistical Techniques in Technological Research [5] described, in laymen's language, the many methods of rigorous experimental design which were becoming widely used and which helped Glacier become one of the world's leading manufacturers of plain bearings. [1] [6]
In 1960 Duckworth joined the British Iron and Steel Research Association where he eventually became assistant director. His Metallurgy Division there led the development of high strength low alloy steels for automobile applications.[ citation needed ]
With a colleague, Geoff Hoyle, he pioneered the electro-slag refining method used to remove inclusions from the very high strength steels used for example for aircraft undercarriages. Such inclusions could otherwise cause premature failure by metal fatigue. [7] : 135–137, 140–141
In 1968 Duckworth was awarded an external PhD by Cambridge. [2] In 1969 on the retirement of Ted Liddiard Duckworth was head hunted by the board of Fulmer Research Institute to be its Director of Research. Fulmer was then the only commercial contract research company in the UK.[ citation needed ] Duckworth transformed Fulmer from a mainly government supported institute to an international organisation with three sites in the UK and joint operations in USA, Singapore and South Africa.[ citation needed ]
In the 1980s contract research became recognised[ by whom? ] as the way forward for many Research Associations and other institutions and Duckworth helped to forge what became the Association of Independent Research and Technology Organisations (AIRTO) and was its president twice. He edited his book Contract Research (1991) following the first Conference of the European Association of Contract Research Organizations, a major international conference. [8]
In 1975 he was president of the Institution of Metallurgists and secured its Royal Charter. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1980.[ citation needed ]