Bob O’Handley retired in 2008 from his position as Senior Research Scientist in MSE and MPC. Bob joined MIT in 1981 as Research Scientist working with Prof. Nick Grant on applications of metallic glasses.
All of Bob’s degrees are in physics: After receiving a B.A. from Marist College (1965), he taught for two years as a Marist Brother in a New York City high school and then changed his career plan, completing the M.S. and Ph.D. at the Polytechnic University (formerly the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn). Prior to coming to MIT, he was NRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Michelson Laboratory in China Lake, CA, (1971--74), then worked for four years at Allied Chemical Corporation on their amorphous metals development program, and then moved to IBM’s Watson Lab for a three-year position as Staff Scientist.
Bob’s primary research focus has been ferromagnetism and applications of ferromagnetic materials. In addition to ferromagnetic metallic glasses, the work has focused on surface and thin-film magnetism, magnetic thin-film devices, active materials, and applications of materials in energy absorption and energy harvesting.
Bob’s publications include nearly 200 articles in refereed journals, 20 patents, scores of conference proceedings, invited lectures, and review articles. He is the author of the textbook Modern Magnetic Materials: Principles and Applications (Wiley, 1999), an outgrowth of the graduate class, 3.45 Magnetic Materials, that Bob developed and taught alternate years since 1990.
Bob has contributed to MSE’s educational programs through classroom and laboratory teaching and research supervision of undergraduate and graduate students.
Many visitors, including three Fulbright Scholars, have been hosted in Bob’s laboratory over the years. As a result of Jiankang Huang’s stay as Visiting Scientist from 1995--1998, he and Bob co-founded Ferro Solutions, Inc., in 2002. Ferro Solutions specializes in wireless power transfer, sensors, and energy harvesters. Another visitor, David Bono, was hired by MSE in 2003 as Research Scientist to design, equip, and oversee the operation of the Undergraduate Teaching Lab.
Bob’s research projects have engaged an impressive number of faculty colleagues as collaborators, including Nick Grant, Keith Johnson, Gretchen Kalonji, Manny Oiveria, Carl Thompson, Sam Allen, Caroline Ross, Yet Chiang, David Paul, Steve Hall, and Jagadeesh Moodera.
Although officially retired, Bob will remain actively engaged with research and development through his role at Ferro Solutions and his relationships with MIT colleagues. He’s blessed with a close family that includes his wife Carol, three children, and five grandchildren (to date!), and he looks forward to spending more time with them as well as pursuing his study of classical piano. We wish him the best!