Keith D. Millis

Class of 1938
Metallurgical Engineer, Inventor
1915-1992

Keith Millis is the inventor of ductile iron, one of the most revolutionary advances in the history of metal research.

As a young metallurgist with International Nickel Company, with which he spent his entire career, he made his discovery while experimenting with molten iron and magnesium. Ductile iron proved to be strong, durable, and corrosion resistant. It is used in almost every industry, such as automotive, fluid handling, machinery, tools, refrigeration, oil fields, and construction.

Because of Millis’s discovery, automobiles have been made better, tractors and bulldozers have increased performance, machine tools are more accurate, and even the way water enters our homes has been made more efficient.

A perpetual international scholarship has been awarded by the Ductile Iron Society in Millis’s name since 1991.