Alan Taub joined the faculty of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan in the Fall of 2012. In this role, Taub is conducting research in advanced materials and processing and is the Director of the newly launched MMRI (Michigan Materials Research Institute).  He continues to support the manufacturing innovation institute LIFT (Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow) and is also supporting the university Global CO2 Initiative.

Taub retired from General Motors in April 2012. Prior to his retirement, he was vice president, Global Research & Development, leading GM’s advanced technical work activity, seven science laboratories around the world, and seven global science offices.   He joined GM R&D as executive director in 2001 and was named vice president in 2009. 

Taub serves on the boards of several small companies, is technical advisor for the strategic venture capital fund, Auto Tech Ventures and serves on the Technology and Strategy Committees for Bocar. 

Before joining GM, Taub spent 15 years in research and development at General Electric, where he earned 25 patents.  He has authored more than 80 papers.  He also worked at Ford Motor Company for eight years.  

Taub received his bachelor’s degree in materials engineering from Brown University and master’s and Ph.D. degrees in applied physics from Harvard University.  Taub was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 and elected to the council for NAE in 2016.  He became a TMS Fellow in 2018, an SME Fellow in 2019 and has served as the Chair for the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT) for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and on advisory boards for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, and the University of California Davis and Berkeley. 

Taub received the 2020 TMS Application to Practice Award and the 2011 Acta Materialia Materials & Society Award.  In 2010, he was awarded the Charles S. Barrett Medal from ASM International’s Rocky Mountain Chapter.  In 2007, he gave the TMS-50^thAnniversary Laureate Lecture and received the Materials Research Society’s Special Recognition Award in 2004 and Woody White Service Award in 2002.  He also received the Brown University Engineering Alumni Medal in 2002.