Leading scholars, scientists, former students and friends of a well-known and respected faculty member gathered Monday for the “Life on Earth With and Without the Rare Earth” symposium.

Karl Gschneidner, Anson Marston distinguished professor of materials science, credited with patenting 13 items and being a foremost authority in the physical metallurgy and thermal and electrical behaviors of rare earth materials, celebrated his 75th birthday Monday.

The event was also a part of the yearlong 100th birthday celebration of materials engineering at Iowa State.

Vitalij Pecharsky, professor and senior scientist at the Ames Laboratory, said he has worked closely with Gschneidner for 13 years, but said Gschneidner’s name had been widely known before that.

“He has been really one of the most distinguished faculty or professors on this campus,” Pecharsky said.

Gschneidner already has a distinguished body of work in his past, but these days the spotlight seems to be shining directly on magnetic refrigeration, one of his latest projects.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, this new style of refrigerator uses gadolinium metal that heats up when exposed to a magnetic field, instead of using “ozone-depleting refrigerants and energy-consuming compressors found in conventional vapor-cycle refrigerators.”

Gschneidner said he expects this refrigeration to expand into automobiles, airplanes and other modes of transportation, but is unsure of when exactly that might occur.

“You’ll be using magnetic refrigerators in your lifetime,” he said.