Arturo Bronson graduated in Metallurgical Engineering in 1970 from The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), and completed his Masters at UTEP in 1972. In 1977, he received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in metallurgical engineering with an emphasis in high temperature thermodynamics and immediately joined the faculty at the University of Arizona. At the University of Arizona, he developed a corrosion research effort along with his undergraduate and graduate teaching in thermodynamics, kinetics and chemical metallurgy. After he moved to the University of Texas at El Paso in 1983, he developed a strong research group in corrosion and high temperature research and became the Director of the Materials Center for Synthesis and Processing from 1995 to 2000 with fifteen faculty and approximately 32 students/year. He was also program director in the Division of Human Resource Development of the Education Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1993. The main thrusts of Arturo Bronson’s research have focused in the chemical interactions of high temperature materials at 1000-1800°C. Professor Bronson also investigates corrosive wear, a relatively new research area, using the concepts of electrochemistry, surface deformation, and material microstructure, as well as infusing statistics and mathematical modeling through an interdisciplinary approach to aid in predicting material behavior. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has continually supported his research since 1984 with additional funds acquired from the Air Force Materials Laboratory, NASA, Army Research Office, Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Professor Arturo Bronson's teaching methodology and philosophy emphasize the development of the understanding of basic concepts as applied to solving current scientific and engineering challenges. Professor Bronson has used the materials research laboratory with undergraduate and graduate students working and learning together to reinforce the application of basic concepts (e.g., thermodynamics, kinetics and transport phenomena). An achievable goal is that for every graduate student, an undergraduate is associated with him or her to support university research -- a practice initiated by Professor Bronson at the university and now integrated into the university education of scientists and engineers. In 2003, he was awarded the Men in Science Award for his excellence in teaching and research in materials science and engineering from the Quality Education for Minorities Network.
Arturo, active in the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, was 1997 chair of the editorial board for the premier publication in metallurgy, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B. He is also active in the Electrochemical Society and the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) for which he served as symposium chair of the conference on “Techniques for Corrosion Measurement.” He has served on several NSF review panels primarily for the Division of Human Resource Development and Division of Materials Research. Arturo was appointed (1997-2000) to the Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE), an Advisory Committee to the Director of NSF; in 1998, he served as chair of CEOSE. He was appointed to NSF’s Advisory Committee for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (10/1999-9/2002) and NSF awarded him with an outstanding service award.