The Swedish chemist Arne Westgren is regarded in metallography as one of the pioneers in the use of X-rays and X-ray crystallographic methods. As early as 1917, he became a private lecturer in physical chemistry at Uppsala University.
A year later he moved to Gothenburg, where he was laboratory director of the ball bearing company S. K. F.. Through the then newly published book “X-Rays and Crystal Structure,” Westgren became aware of the usefulness of X-ray crystallographic methods in metallography.
From 1920 he worked as a private lecturer in metallography at Stockholm University in the metallographic institute then founded by the Swedish iron and metal industry. There, together with Gosta Phragmen, he discovered that certain structural types recur in the alloys of copper, silver, and gold with other metals. In 1927 Westgren became a professor at Stockholm University, and from 1926 to 1965 he served on the Nobel Committee for Pyhsics and Chemistry, 21 years of which as chairman.