In June 1950, he became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he headed its materials division and conducted research on solid-state materials. He became the George Westinghouse professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. Later, his research interests expanded to include geology. He was a visiting professor at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1962, the Boeing Scientific Research Laboratory for a year in 1965–1977, and at the University of Pittsburgh in 1972.