Walter L. Winterbottom (1930-2013) was Pittsburgh-born material scientist who started his research career at the Metals Research Laboratory, Carnegie Institute of Technology (where he published with J.P. Hirth in 1962 âÂÂâ Diffusional contribution to the total flow from a Knudsen cellâÂÂâÂÂ) and then worked for the rest of his research career at the Ford Motor Company's Scientific Research Lab in Dearborn, Michigan. He worked there from 1962 until retirement in 1995. His academic background included degrees from both Drexel Institute of Technology (Drexel University) (1958) and Carnegie Institute of Technology (Carnegie Mellon University) (1962) (Metallurgical Engineering - Dissertation: Some Considerations of Surface Phenomena).
It was at Ford that he published his most noted contribution (âÂÂâÂÂEquilibrium shape of a small particle in contact with a foreign substrateâÂÂâÂÂ) that led to the term the Winterbottom construction being used to describe the solution for the shape of a solid particle on a substrate, where the substrate is forced to remain flat.