TMS2022 All-Conference Plenary

The TMS2022 All-Conference Plenary session will be held Tuesday, March 1, and offers an opportunity for all annual meeting attendees to come together for a shared presentation of common interest.

Featured Speaker:

Jim Yurko
Senior Distinguished Engineer
Apple Materials Engineering

"Alloy Design at Apple"

Date: Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Time: Noon to 1:00 p.m.
Location: Ballroom ABCD, Anaheim Convention Center, Third Floor

Apple products are recognized for their iconic industrial design and innovative performance, as well as the significant manufacturing scale to produce them for their customers globally. Materials innovation plays a central role in this success. In the last ten years, Apple has built an impressive materials engineering team focused on the design and application of new materials and engineered surfaces. Remarkably, this new materials development occurs within the rapid timescale of Apple product design and with an emphasis on reduced environmental impact.

On the Apple Alloy Engineering team, materials design is accelerated by the use of integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) approaches, improved characterization techniques, and rapid experimental feedback to inform design. This talk highlights Apple materials innovations that utilize these materials design methods.

About the Presenter

As part of Apple’s Product Design Materials Engineering group, Jim Yurko leads the Alloy Engineering Team, which is responsible for alloy design and engineered surface development of all Apple products. From the most recent materials and surface finishes of iPhone to the launch of highly recycled aluminum alloys on Macbook, iPad, and Watch, the Alloy Team’s contributions emphasize performance, cosmetics, and environmental impact of these iconic products using industry-leading accelerated materials design methodologies. 

Prior to joining Apple in 2015, he served as Vice President of Technology at Materion Corporation and co-founded Boston Electrometallurgical Corporation (now Boston Metal) in 2012. 

Jim’s career has focused on materials design and application, as well as process development and sustainability in a number of materials systems including aluminum, stainless steel, titanium, magnesium, zirconium-bulk metallic glasses, and beryllium. 

An active TMS member, Jim served previously as chair of the Process Technology and Modeling Committee and received the Vittorio de Nora Prize for Environmental Improvements in Metallurgical Industries in 2012, the Brimacombe Medal in 2016, and the TMS Young Leader Award in 2010. In addition, Jim is a recognized supporter of the TMS Foundation. Jim earned his B.S.E. from the University of Michigan and Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in Materials Science and Engineering.