F. B. Pickering was a British metallurgist born in Rotherham, near Sheffield. His notable research and development work in the field of physical metallurgy throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s contributed much to the high strength, low alloy steels which are an essential engineering material in the 21st century.

Pickering worked at the British Steel Corporation in Rotherham and Sheffield, becoming a key member of the BSC Swinden Laboratories staff and, later, a Professor at the Sheffield City Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University).

His classic Physical Metallurgy and the Design of Steels (ISBN 0853347522), originally published in 1978 by Applied Science Publishers, London, continues to be recommended reading for the majority of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science university courses around the world.

Prof. Pickering was awarded the 1994 Bessemer Gold Medal for outstanding services to the steel industry, by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.