Established October 9, 1968, by Dr. Fontana, former chair of the Department of  Metallurgical Engineering and Regents’ Professor. Income provides a metallurgical engineering scholarship.
Mars G. Fontana (left) working in his lab in an undated photo.
Adapted from a tribute at the National Academy of Engineering, written by Robert Rapp, and accessed online at: https://www.nae.edu/188861/MARS-G-FONTANA-19101988
Mars G. Fontana, a world-renowned educator and corrosion engineer, died February 29, 1988, at age seventy-seven. He was one of the world’s pioneers in research establishing basic scientific knowledge of the phenomenon of corrosion and its applications in engineering. In addition to his noteworthy technical achievements, Fontana was an outstanding administrator and stimulating teacher.
Born in Iron Mountain, Michigan, on April 6, 1910, Fontana received a B.S. in chemical engineering (1931) and an M.S. (1932) and Ph.D. (1935) in metallurgical engineering from the University of Michigan. From 1929 to 1934 he served as a research assistant in the university’s Department of Engineering, where his work included investigations of scaling of steel at forging temperatures, development, and use of apparatus for vacuum fusion analysis for gases in steels, high-temperature creep of metals and alloys, and also basic work on the thermodynamics of steelmaking. He published four articles based on this work.
From 1934 to 1945 Fontana worked for Du Pont in Wilmington, Delaware, as a metallurgical engineer and group supervisor in the Technical Division of the Engineering Department. There he devoted limited time to research while concentrating largely on plant and design engineering. This included organizing work on materials of construction in various Du Pont production departments and developing materials and designs for acid service. He also pioneered industrial uses of nylon and Teflon. Four patents were assigned to Du Pont in connection with his corrosion work.
This early practical experience set the stage for his research, writing, and teaching that followed during the succeeding thirty years of professional activity as professor and chairman in the Department of Metallurgical Engineering at The Ohio State University. In 1945 he was named a professor of metallurgical engineering at Ohio State, and in 1948 department chairman and director of the Corrosion Center, the largest university effort in corrosion research in the United States. He was named a regents professor in 1967 and chairman emeritus in 1975.
Throughout his career, Fontana merged science and engineering to clarify the mechanisms of corrosive attack of engineering materials by aggressive environments, and to develop and recommend inhibitors, coatings, and electrolytic and other means to protect engineering structures. These efforts led to his famous textbook Corrosion Engineering, published in 1967. He was exceptionally well qualified and recognized as a consultant to industry on corrosion problems and materials selection, and he did consulting work for Duriron Company, Mallinckrodt Chemical, Combustion Engineering, Dow Chemical, General Electric, U.S. Steel, Republic Steel, Humble Oil, Standard Oil of New Jersey and of Ohio, Kaiser Aluminum, American Potash and Chemical Co., the U.S. Air Force, Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and other firms and agencies of the federal government.
Fontana was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1967 and later served on the National Research Council’s Committee on Ocean Engineering. He served as an honorary member of the American Society for Metals (ASM) in 1969 and was a fellow of the ASM in 1970, of the Metallurgical Society of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineering (AIME) in 1971, and of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 1972. He served as president of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers in 1952, chairman of the Corrosion Division of the Electrochemical Society in 1948–1949, and chairman of the Columbus Chapter of the ASM in 1948. He was a member of Sigma Xi, Phi Lambda Upsilon, Phi Eta Sigma, Iota Alpha, Alpha Sigma Mu, and faculty adviser to Texnikoi.
He held eight patents including that for Alloy FA-20, a standard alloy for many corrosive services. His Alloy DC4MCu was patented by Ohio State, and he invented Duriron anodes for cathodic protection that are used to protect buildings at the Kennedy Space Center.
Fontana and his wife Elizabeth had four children, Martha, Mary Beth, David, and Tommy. He enjoyed a good game of golf and bowled in the Faculty League (highest score, 279). Active in his community, Fontana participated in Cub Scouts, Cub Scout baseball (he had played semiprofessional baseball), Boy Scout fund raising, the United Appeal, and the First Congregational Church.
Fontana Labs on the engineering campus of Ohio State is named in his honor.