Megumi Tashiro (1917-2008)

ACerS Emeritus Member, Megumi Tashiro, a Society Fellow since 1964, passed away on July 16, 2008, at the age of 90. He was an Emeritus Professor of Kyoto University.

Tashiro, born in Tokyo in 1917, did his graduate work at Kyoto University and obtained his undergraduate degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology. In 1942, he became a research associate of the Institute for Chemical Research at Kyoto University. For the next 40 years, he dedicated himself to research work primarily in the area of glass science and technology for 40 years at Kyoto University, until his retirement in 1981. For a short period from 1953 to 1956, he obtained a leave from Kyoto University, and worked at the Pennsylvania State University, with Professor W.A.Weyl.

Tashiro’s achievements in the field of glass science and technology were very broad, covering “homogenization of melt in the tank furnace,” “chemical durability,” “acid-base relationship,” “effects of high energy radiations,” “high pressure effects,” “photochromic glass,” “glass formation in the unconventional oxide systems,” and “glass-ceramics.”

One of the unique features of his work is in situ observation, based on the specifically designed instrument. Examples of such observation include (1) observation of high temperature optical spectra in the course of raising temperature to find mechanism of the formation of Ag colloids in photosensitive glasses; (2) observation of the rate of dissolution in optical microscope to measure the chemical durability; (3) measurement of the rate of growth of lithium dislocate crystals under high temperature optical microscope; (4) observation of growth of alkali metal crystals at the surface of alkali silicate glasses due to electron bombardment in the electron microscope and so on.

Tashiro was recognized internationally, as well as domestically. He was invited to present an invited lecture on crystallization of glass, for instance, at the Eighth International Congress on Glass of 1968. He served the glass world as regional editor of the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids from 1968 to 1981. He also received many honors, including the Ceramic Society of Japan’s Science Award and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Science Award.