Dr. Robert Carnahan, executive director and co-founder of Thixomat, Inc. of Ann Arbor, will address more than 900 graduates at Michigan Tech's spring commencement ceremonies May 20. Thixomat is an entrepreneurial consortium of industrial partners involved in the worldwide marketing of Thixomolding, a revolutionary materials technology for the production of net shape components combining elements of both injection molding and die casting.
Carnahan received his B.S. in metallurgical engineering from Michigan Tech in 1953, then joined the U.S. Navy, where he served three years as an engineering officer in underwater ordnance. After completing his military service, he worked on germanium transistors and ductile ceramics for Honeywell Research, before returning to graduate school for doctoral studies at Northwestern University. Upon earning his Ph.D, he joined the Aerospace Corporation in California doing fundamental research on microplasticity, heat resistant structures, and composites. From California he went to Chicago, where he spent the next 20 years as a research director for Universal Oil Products and Gould, Inc. and as senior vice president of science and technology for United States Gypsum. In 1989 he co-founded Thixomat and served as its president and CEO.
Carnahan has received distinguished alumni awards from both Michigan Tech and Northwestern and is a life trustee of the Michigan Tech Fund, a member of the McNair Society, the MTU National Advisory board, the Presidents Club, the Second Century Society, and the Huskies Club. He served on the Century II Campaign priority gifts and general gifts phases, and in 1999 he endowed the Dr. Robert D. Carnahan Business of Technology Chair. In 1983 he received the MTU Board of Control Silver Medal.
He currently calls Park city, Utah his winter home and resides along the Columbia River Gorge during the summer.
###
05/09/00-MTN290