After completing his Ph.D., Touloukian became an instructor at
Purdue University. He was appointed to the position of Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering in 1948, Associate Professor in 1953, and Full Professor in 1957. He became Distinguished Alcoa Professor of Engineering in 1967, and in 1970 was honored once again to the Chair of Distinguished Atkins Professor of Engineering. Touloukian taught numerous graduate courses at Purdue University in thermodynamics and in heat and mass transfer. During his teaching career, he developed many new courses in physical thermodynamics and was the first to introduce a course in an engineering curricula in the area of "Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes" in 1953. He was the major professor of a total of 65 Ph.D. and M.S. students and directed the original research for their Ph.D. dissertations and M.S. theses. Besides his teaching and research career, Touloukian served as a consultant to a number of government agencies and industrial organizations. He was also appointed to numerous scientific and technical committees and boards of scientific and technical societies and government panels. These included: •
National Academy of Sciences – National Research Council Advisory Board of the Office of Critical Tables (1958-1969) •
ASME Standing Committee on Thermophysical Properties (member 1947–1970, chairman 1948–1951, 1956–1959) • Editorial Advisory Board, "International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer." (starting 1960) • Editorial Advisory Board, International Journal, "High Temperatures/High Pressures." (starting 1968) • Editorial Advisory Board, "Heat Transfer-Soviet Research" (starting 1969) • Editorial Advisory Board, "Heat Transfer-Japanese Research" (starting 1972) • Editorial Board, "
International Journal of Thermophysics" (starting 1980) •
ASTM-
ASME Joint Research Committee on Effect of Temperature on the Properties of Metals (1960-1968) •
ASTM Special Committee on Numerical Data (1963-1968) • Gordon Research Conference on Numerical Data of Science and Technology, Chairman (1966) • Engineering Joint Council "Panel on Information Centers Managers" (1964-1965) •
AIAA "Technical Committee on Thermophysics" (1964-1968) • American Society of Information Sciences, Councilor and Member of Board of Directors (1965-1967) • ASM "Metals Information Committee" (1965-1968) • Applied Mechanics Reviews, Associate Editor (1966) •
National Academy of Sciences/
National Academy of Engineering "Scientific and Technical Communication Committee (SATCOM) (1967-1969) • International CODATA/ICSU Task Group on Thermophysical Properties, Chairman (1972-1978) • Editorial Board,
American Institute of Physics "50th Anniversary (1981) Physics Handbook." == Thermophysical Properties Research Center (TPRC)==