Obituary

Sinnott was born in 1916 in Detroit, where his father, an Irish immigrant, was a police lieutenant. Sinnott was awarded all of his degrees from U-M: B.S. (chemical engineering, 1938), M.S. (chemical engineering, 1941) and Sc.D. (metallurgical engineering, 1946). From 1938 until his return in 1940 for U-M graduate work, he was a plant metallurgist at the Great Lakes Steel Corp. of Detroit.

(Photo courtesy James Wilkes)

Sinnott began his teaching career at U-M in 1944 as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering. He was promoted to associate professor in 1948 and to professor in 1954. He was chairman for many years of both his departmental Doctoral Standards Committee and the Chairman's Advisory Committee. From 1972-81 he was associate dean for administration and research at the College of Engineering.

Sinnott's research interests included physical metallurgy, surface phenomena and solid-state physics. He published two textbooks and 40 other articles in the areas of materials and physical metallurgy; his 1958 text, "The Solid State for Engineers," was the first such textbook in the country, and it also appeared in French, German and Japanese editions. He introduced solid-state physics into undergraduate engineering courses, teaching nuclear materials and physical metallurgy, and was the first to incorporate computer methods into undergraduate metallurgical courses.

During a 1969-71 University leave, Sinnott served first as director of the Materials Research Office of the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and then as deputy director of DARPA. He continued that professional affiliation, even after his official retirement from U-M in 1984. He held a University appointment until 1993, during which time he was director of DARPA's Materials Research Council, conducting research on campus during the academic year and organizing a month-long council conference each summer. The council consisted of eminent materials scientists, chemists, engineers and physicists (including a few Nobel Prize winners), who, in their advisory roles, had a major impact on the direction and federal funding of research in structural and electronic materials, components and systems.

Sinnott received the U-M Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award (1969) and the American Society for Metals Bradley Houghton Award for Outstanding Teaching (1954). He also was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Medal (1972) by U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird for outstanding contributions in engineering and management, including the development of ceramics in gas turbines.

Sinnott was a member of the American Society of Metals, the American Institute of Metallurgical Engineers, the American Society of Testing and Materials, and the American Society of Engineering Education. He is survived by his wife, Mary, five children and 11 grandchildren.—Submitted by James Wilkes, professor emeritus of chemical engineering