Irwin Lachman

Irwin Lachman is a scientist and artist born in Brooklyn, NY in 1930 and who grew up in Jersey Homesteads, NJ (now called Roosevelt). ["Bush to give Senior Scientist Tech Honor," by Martin Espinoza, The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, CA, February 18, 2005] He was part of the team at Corning Glass Works (Corning, Inc.) that invented the first inexpensive, mass producible catalytic converter for automobiles operating internal combustion engines. In addition to Irwin Lachman, the team consisted of Rodney Bagley another engineer and Ronald Lewis a geologist; their work was a response to the US 1970 Clean Air Act. The catalyst, platinum, required lead be removed as an additive to gasoline thus creating a second benefit for the environment in addition to reducing polluting emissions from the combustion process by 95%. Lachman, along with Bagley and Lewis, were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002 ["THE CLASS OF 2002: They invented LASIK surgery, seat belts, and aspirin, among other things" By Jim Quinn, Invention and Technology Magazine, Fall 2002, Vol 18, Issue 2.] and received the 2003 National Medal of Technology at a White House ceremony ["President awards national science and technology medals" from Associated Press in USAToday, March 14, 2005] , and they also won the International Ceramics Prize of 1996 for Industry and Innovation "Advanced Ceramics." ["Role of Ceramics in a Self-Sustaining Environment, Proceedings of FORUM '96 of the Academy of Ceramics held in Cracow, Poland, June 1996. ] Lachman received a B. Eng. from Rutgers University in 1952 and a Ph.D. in ceramic engineering from Ohio State University in 1955, holds 47 U.S. patents and has authored numerous technical papers. [Rutgers Focus, May 30, 2007]

He is married to Ruth Lachman and has two sons, Joshua Lachman and David Lachman and two grandson, Phillip Lachman and Ariel Lachman.