Antoine Marc Gaudin

Updated on Nov 23, 2023

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Name Antoine Gaudin		Role Engineer

Died August 23, 1974, Boston, Massachusetts, United States Education Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science Books Principles of Mineral Dressing

Antoine Marc Gaudin (August 8, 1900 – August 23, 1974) was a distinguished American mineral engineer, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Early life

Gaudin was born in Smyrna, Turkey, where his father was a railroad general manager and archaeologist. He was educated in Haifa, Versailles, and Toulon, then attended universities in Paris and Aix-en-Provence from which he received his bachelor's degrees in 1916 and 1917, respectively. He followed his father to the United States in 1917 to enter the Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science, known as Columbia School of Mines at the time of Gaudin, from which he received his Engineer of Mines degree in 1921.

Professional life

After brief interludes in industry, Gaudin returned to Columbia in 1924 as a lecturer. In 1926 he became an American citizen. From 1926-1929 he taught at the University of Utah, and from 1929-1939 was professor at the Montana School of Mines. He then assumed a professorship at MIT in 1939, which he retained until his retirement in 1966. In World War II and subsequently, Gaudin led an MIT team extracting uranium from low-grade ore.

Gaudin and his colleagues at the University of Utah/U.S. Bureau of Mines systematically investigated the function of reagents on the flotation behavior of pure minerals, during the period, 1926 -1929. Gaudin is admired as the father of ‘Fundamental Flotation Research’ due to his focused research on flotation process. Other important contributors to flotation research of those times are Coghill, Fahrenwald, Langmuir, Norris, Ralston, Sulman, Taggart, et al. Gaudin published a text book ‘Flotation’ which has two editions, 1931 and 1957. The book "Principles of Mineral Dressing" authored by AM Gaudin is still the basic book for all mineral processing engineers.

For his distinguished career in education, Gaudin was awarded several of the highest honors bestowed by the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers.

The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers published two volumes titled Flotation - A.M. Gaudin Memorial Volume in 1976, edited by MC Fuerstenau. In 1975 the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME) instituted the 'Antoine M. Gaudin Award' in honour of Gaudin. It is awarded for: "scientific or engineering contributions that further understanding of the technology of mineral processing".

Personal life

Former students and colleagues knew, Nancy wife of Gaudin as a charming and gracious lady. Gaudin is blessed with two sons Paul and Robert, a daughter Elinor. He is blessed with twelve grand children. Gaudin was an avid fisher man, on occasions a gourmet cook, an artist and a collector of paintings, as well as a patron of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.