article_title name birth_date death_date
robert durrer
 robert durrer 1890 1978 1890
robert durrer

robert durrer -lrb- 1890 -- 1978 -rrb- was a swiss engineer who developed the basic oxygen steelmaking process -lrb- the linz-donawitz process , named after the towns where the technology was commercialized -rrb- .
the process was successfully tested by durrer in 1948 and further refined and implemented by vÖest and Öamg in austria , independently of the `` big steel '' establishment of the united states and the ruhr .
durrer graduated from the aachen university in 1915 .
he stayed in germany and in 1928 accepted the chair of the professor of metallurgy at the berlin institute of technology .
in 1943 durrer returned from nazi germany to switzerland and was appointed to the board of von roll ag , the country 's largest steelmaker .
durrer teamed up with heinrich heilbrugge and ran a series of experiments that established commercial viability of basic oxygen metallurgy .
in 1947 durrer ordered a small experimental converter from the united states , and on april 1 , 1948 durrer and heilbrugge produced their first oxygen-blown steel .
in the summer of 1948 von roll ag and two austrian state-owned companies , vÖest and Öamg , agreed to commercialize the durrer process .
their commercial converter furnaces were put into operation in november 1952 -lrb- vÖest in linz -rrb- and may 1953 -lrb- Öamg , donawitz -rrb- and temporarily became `` the '' leading edge of the world 's steelmaking , causing a surge in steel-related research .
the big american steelmakers did not catch up to the new technology : u.s. steel and bethlehem steel introduced oxygen process only in 1964 .
japan , on the contrary , became an early adopter and by 1970 produced 80 % of its steel in linz-donawitz furnaces .
durrer 's contribution to practical steelmaking was marked by the aime benjamin f. fairless award , 1966 .
etc. .
durrer was a professor at eth zurich from 1943 to 1961 .
he edited and co-authored the multi-volume `` metallurgie des eisens '' -lrb- metallurgy of iron , or the `` gmelin-durrer '' -rrb- .
the annual `` staudinger-durrer prize '' awarded by eth zurich commemorates durrer along with nobel prize winner hermann staudinger .
