Date:
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Session Chair
Carolyn Hansson, University of Waterloo
Four individuals will deliver talks at this special session, which honors their achievements as recipients of this year’s Acta Materialia awards. All TMS2021 Virtual attendees are invited to attend this session and hear from award recipients.
Featured Speakers
Acta Materialia Gold Medal Lecture
Günter Gottstein, Distinguished Senior Professor, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
"Modeling Microstructure Complexity for Better Property Predictions"
About the Presentation
The discovery of X-rays 125 years ago enabled scientists to reveal the internal structure of materials, as comprised by the spatial arrangement and distribution of elements as well as crystal defects, which we refer to as microstructure. A fundamental paradigm of physical metallurgy relates material properties to microstructure besides alloy chemistry. Research in the past century has generated a framework to quantitatively link microstructure to material properties. Since microstructure development during processing of a material is a complex and highly nonlinear phenomenon, the non-empirical prediction of material properties from the knowledge of processing history became only feasible with the advent of high-power computers. However, microstructural evolution proceeds by atomistic processes, which requires a deep understanding of the underlying physical mechanisms. This presentation will address essentials of respective approaches and challenges for microstructure modeling from conventional processing routes to increasingly complex material structures and modern material fabrication.
About the Presenter
Günter Gottstein is Distinguished Senior Professor of RWTH Aachen University. Prior to his retirement, he was Professor and Director of the Institute of Physical Metallurgy and Metal Physics (IMM) at RWTH Aachen University.
Gottstein studied physics at RWTH Aachen University and obtained his diploma in 1969. In 1973, he was promoted in metal physics and became Dr. habil. of Physical Metallurgy and Metal Physics of the Faculty of Mining and Metallurgy of RWTH in 1979. In the same year, he moved to the USA to work as a visiting scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, then as a visiting associate professor at MIT and, in 1983, became an associate professor in the Department of Metallurgy, Mechanics and Materials Science of Michigan State University, where he was promoted to full professor in 1985. In 1989, he returned to RWTH Aachen University to succeed Kurt Lücke as director of IMM. From 1993 through 1999, he was also appointed head of the Central Electron Facility of RWTH and served as Dean of the Faculty of Mining Metallurgy and Geosciences from 1996 through 1998. He became Professor Emeritus in 2013 and was appointed as the first Distinguished Senior Professor of RWTH Aachen University in 2014.
Gottstein dedicated his scientific activities to the fields of materials modeling and simulation, interface science, particularly grain boundary migration and the properties of grain boundary junctions, crystallographic texture, high temperature plasticity with focus on dynamic recrystallization, intermetallic matrix composites, and properties of magnesium alloys.
Acta Materialia Silver Medal Lecture
Julie Cairney, Director of Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, Australia
"Measuring Hydrogen in Steels by Using Atom Probe Tomography"
About the Presentation
Atom probe tomography is a powerful technique for the characterization of materials. It provides beautiful 3D datasets that show the precise position and species of atoms within a needle shaped volume with a tip radius of ~100 nm. However, until recently, hydrogen in the atom chamber meant that it could not be used to accurately measure hydrogen. By using a custom-designed cryogenic transfer set-up, we have been able to obtain world-first 3D maps that show the distribution of hydrogen around the common microstructural features in steels. This work includes the first ever observations of hydrogen at dislocations, finally providing a concrete validation of the theory of hydrogen-enhanced dislocation mobility as a mechanism of hydrogen embrittlement. It also provides the first direct observations of hydrogen at the interface between incoherent precipitates and the surrounding steel matrix, settling a long-standing debate around whether hydrogen trapping is an interfacial effect (it is).
About the Presenter
Julie Cairney is the Director of the Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis at the University of Sydney and CEO of Microscopy Australia, an Australian National Collaborative Infrastructure Initiative. Cairney is a specialist in using advanced microscopy to study the three-dimensional structure of materials at the atomic scale. She is also a passionate contributor to the broader scientific community and was selected as one of the World Economic Forum’s 50 Young Scientists of 2016.
Cairney has made vital contributions to developing and applying new microscopy technologies that have been adopted in microscopy labs around the world and allowed her to make an impact across a range of research fields. She is a world expert in the development and application of atom probe microscopy techniques.
Recently, she established in her laboratory a custom-designed cryogenic transfer set-up that has allowed her to provide world-first 3D maps that show the distribution of hydrogen around the common microstructural features in steels. In a different area of microscopy, Cairney has worked with one of her technical staff, Patrick Trimby, in developing materials applications for a new technique for crystal orientation mapping in the scanning electron microscope, called ‘transmission Kikuchi diffraction.’ A 10-fold increase in resolution has allowed orientation mapping methods to be applied to the study of nano-scale microstructural features. Their paper on this topic was one of the most downloaded papers in Acta Materialia in 2014.
She has also made significant contributions to industry, having have worked with BlueScope Steel to design a new range of strip cast steels that are strengthened by the atomic-scale clustering of atoms, and with Weir Minerals Australia to produce tougher, wear-resistant alloys for components to reduce the downtime in Australian mines. Both of these products reached commercial production trials. She has also founded a successful start-up company that sells microscopy components developed in her lab, now servicing over 30 laboratories worldwide.
Acta Materialia Hollomon Materials and Society Award
Qingjie Zhang, Professor, Wuhan University of Technology, China
"Global Energy Challenges and Development of Thermoelectric Materials and Systems in China"
About the Presentation
This lecture presents global energy challenges and Chinese strategy, research activities and main progress on thermoelectric (TE) materials, and recent development of TE applications in China. This presentation will report on recent progress in four important areas: (1) discovery of the multi-local effects coexistence mechanism of electric and thermal transport on the atomic and molecular scale and the superparamagnetic enhancement of thermoelectric performance; (2) exploration of a novel self-propagating high-temperature synthesis technology that can realize the large-scale ultra-fast preparation of high-performance TE materials in less than one minute; (3) development of the solar energy photovoltaic(PV)-TE hybrid power generation technology that has been applied to two solar power generation demonstration systems with 5kW and 100kW; (4) creation of an automotive waste heat TE power generation demonstration vehicle that can recover about 1000W electrical energy from automotive exhaust.
About the Presenter
Qingjie Zhang is with the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing in the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) at Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. He is also a Scientist in Materials Science and a Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Zhang received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanics of Materials and Structures from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 1990. He was engaged in post-doctoral research in Materials Science at the State Key Lab from 1991 to 1992. At present, he is professor and president of WUT.
His research activities have focused on development and application in the areas of new energy materials and devices, advanced composite materials and structures, material micro-nano computation and new materials design, to name a few. In the last 20 years, Zhang received three National Awards for technological invention and scientific discovery, including two National Technological Invention Awards and a National Natural Science Award. In 2017, Zhang received the American Ceramic Society Award for Frontier of Science and Technology-Rustum Roy Lecture.
Zhang has been appointed successively as Chief Scientist of the National Basic Research Program of China (2007-2017) of High-efficiency Thermoelectric Materials and Devices, Director of the State Key Laboratory (2004-2017), Member of 1st National Basic Research Strategy Advisory Committee of Ministry of Science and Technology (2020-), Head of the Expert Group of Materials for the Strategy Planning Research for State Key Laboratories Facing to 2035 of Ministry of Science and Technology, Head of Expert Group of Materials for the Strategy Planning Research on Interdisciplinary Frontiers and Disruptive Innovation Facing to 2035 of Ministry of Science and Technology, Member of Expert Group of Guideline drafting for National Key Research Program on Key Sciences Problems on Disruptive Technologies (2017-), and Head of Expert Group of Major Research Project on High-performance Materials with Ordered Functional Unit of National Natural Science Foundation of China (2019-).
Acta Materialia Mary Fortune Global Diversity Lecture
Katalin Balazsi, Head of Thin Film Physics Department, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary
"STEM Mentor Programs and New Opportunities for Women and Other Under-Represented Groups in Materials Science"
About the Presentation
Science and gender equality are both vital for the achievement of internationally agreed-upon development goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The global community has made a lot of effort in inspiring and engaging women and under-represented groups in science. At present in Europe, only around 30 % of all female students select STEM-related fields. In Hungary, it is only 12%. This presentation will highlight mentor programs to provide the methodological guidance with respect to under-represented groups for increasing equality in material science and engineering.
About the Presenter
Katalin Balázsi is head of the Thin Film Physics Department of the Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science, Centre for Energy Research of Eötvös Loránd Research Network in Hungary. She is also the President of the Association of Hungarian Women in Science (NATE).
Balázsi received her B.A. degree in Electromaterials Engineering in 2000 and her M.A. (2002) and Ph.D. (2005) degrees in Materials Science, all from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Slovak Technical University in Bratislava. She was named the young researcher in the Institute of Electrical Engineering at Slovak Academy of Sciences in 2005. She started her research career as research fellow in 2006 at the Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and in 2012 was appointed senior scientist at the Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Balázsi has focused more than 15 years of research activities in the area of nanocomposite thin films and bioceramics. In addition, important activities she participates in and organizes for the promotion and representation of women in the materials science and engineering field include the following: initiation of a program for which the goal is to take secondary and high school students (with 70% girls’ participation) into real-life environment materials science professions; organization of a Girls Day for the past eight years in her laboratory; organization of national conferences focusing on women in science topics and roundtable discussions looking at real-life problems about balancing family and research life; involving the girls in the programs in various research activities from a young age, before university; organization of the International Workshop on Women in Ceramic Science 2019 with support of the European Ceramic Society; representation of women researchers at the international level as well as serving as a board member of the European Platform of Women Scientists; organization of a summer camp for kids living in a children´s home – promoting research activity with the help of MSc students from technical universities as positive role models; and supervision of female high school students in national competitions for young innovators and Ph.D. students from third world countries, as well as from Hungary.