John W. Cahn

John W. Cahn

John Werner Cahn (born January 9, 1928, Cologne, Germany) is an American scientist and winner of the 1998 National Medal of Science. He was a professor in the department of Materials Science at MIT from 1964 to 1978. Since 1977, he has held a position at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly the National Bureau of Standards, NBS). Dr. Cahn has had a profound influence on the course of materials and mathematics research during his career. One of foremost authorities on thermodynamics, Cahn has applied the basic laws of thermodynamics to describe and predict a wide range of physical phenomena.