2024 Adolf Martens Lecture

Warren M. Garrison

Professor Garrison graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley. He received his M.A. in Physics from the University of California at Davis. He received his Ph.D in Materials Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1979. From 1979 until 1984 he was in the Materials Science Department at the Sandia National Laboratory, Livermore, California. He joined Carnegie Mellon University in 1984 and became a full professor in 1990. He has been most interested in the effects of microstructure on the mechanical behavior of steels and this work has led to two alloys currently in production. The first is a new jet engine shaft alloy developed with General Electric Aircraft Engines and the second is a low alloy steel developed for mining applications. He holds four patents. He is a fellow of the ASM and is an Associate Editor for Materials and Metallurgical Transactions A.

Professor Garrison’s primary research interests are in the influence of microstructure on the mechanical behavior of metallic materials with an emphasis on steels. Currently the primary interests are (1) the effects of inclusion distributions and fine-scale microstructure on the toughness of ultra-high strength steels, (2) the effects of composition and heat treatment on the strength and toughness of martensitic precipitation strengthened stainless steels, (3) the effects of fine-scale microstructure and inclusion distributions on the strength and formability of advanced high strength steels for sheet applications and (4) the effects of microstructure and inclusion distributions on the stress corrosion cracking resistance of ultra-high strength steels. The effects of inclusion spacing, of inclusion volume fraction and of void nucleation resistance on toughness have been investigated for a wide range of fine-scale steel microstructures. It has been found that particles of titanium carbosulfide are much more resistant to void nucleation than particles of other sulfide types and that this improved resistance to void nucleation can lead to significant improvements in toughness, particularly in the steels HY180 and AF1410. The effects of cobalt on the strength of precipitation strengthened martensitic stainless steels has been investigated and has led to the development of new ultra-high strength stainless.

David Porter

David Porter is professor emeritus at University of Oulu. He served as professor in physical metallurgy, head of Materials Engineering Laboratory, which consists of about 15 researchers, five teachers and five supporting staff members from 2011 until 2019. He was actively involved in initiating the Finnish Metals and Engineering Competence Cluster Ltd., which was established in order to create new international research networks and promote excellence in science and application-driven research for the benefit of the metals and engineering industry. He was also a member of University of Oulu's Centre for Advanced Steels Research (CASR), which was established in 2006 to coordinate and strengthen the research conducted in several departments and laboratories related to the innovative development and processing of advanced steels. CASR covers the full chain of steel production, from hot metal production through primary steelmaking, ladle treatments, continuous casting, and hot working, to the microstructure and properties of steel products. In addition, the activities of the center cover the economy of steel processing, process automation, the modeling of processes and product properties, workshop fabrication methods, and final applications of steels. Many excellent research activities, especially on ultrahigh-strength martensitic steels, have been performed under his guidance. These works frequently focused on advanced microstructural characterization of bainitc and martensitic steels, the optimization of their properties such as strength and toughness, as well as weldability. Since 1977, Porter has published nearly 200 papers covering nearly all aspects of steel production. Yet his landmark publication that most metallurgists probably came across during their studies is the famous teaching book, Porter - Easterling: Phase Transformations in Metals and Alloys. The first edition was published in February 1980.

Before resuming his academic career, Porter served 26 years as product development manager at Rautaruukki Steel Co. in Finland, where he developed many class-leading low-carbon bainitic and martensitic steel products increasingly being produced via direct quenching technology. During his tenure as professor, he transferred sophisticated academic metallurgical knowledge into practical applications in close cooperation with SSAB Europe.

Mark E. Zipf

Mark E. Zipf is an internationally recognized professional whose outstanding expertise has taken him for operations in over 30 Countries: Asia, Pacific Rim, South America, Europe, and Middle East. Truly a globally tested cross-cultural experience! He has 35 years of experience in Cold Rolled Flat Products that covers rolling process; rolling mill equipment; mill sizing, selection and design; mill set-up, scheduling and operations; mathematical modeling/simulation; control, automation and drive systems; thickness measurement and control; shape/flatness measurement and control; mill performance and production analysis; material characteristics/quality measurement, analysis and improvement.

He has a lot to share from his direct work on over 250 single-stand mills (over 120 in the Sendzimir family) and more than 40 multi-stand tandem mills. Mark Zipf has an extensive experience in the “design, manufacture, installation, commissioning, set-up, scheduling and operations of ALL conventional cold mill arrangements, including vertical stack in multi-stand tandem, in-line and stand-alone / reversing arrangements, and the ENTIRE family of Sendzimir”.

He has worked with a wide variety of materials, alloys, and processing methods, including: “low, mid and high carbon steels, IF, AHSS, dual phase; silicon / electrical / lamination steels (GO & NGO, up to 3.1% Si); stainless steels (200, 300, 400 series, duplex, PH); copper / brass / bronze (with phosphor, beryllium); aluminum; titanium; Inconel, high-nickel / high-chromium alloys; precious metals; lead / indium solder alloys; along with multi-layered bonded / clad, sintered and skived / inlay processes”.

Mark is an award-winning author of over 135 technical publications that comprise of invited papers, conferences, book chapters, and journal/magazine articles. He is committedly involved in educational training, academic development, National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research, and invited lectures. He is a reputable member of the Association of Iron & Steel Technologies (AIST). He lectures AIST’s courses such Cold Rolling Fundamentals, Sheet Processing & Finishing Lines (which he lectured with great passion, I was one of the trainees in Kentucky this year), and process systems. He does not only lecture the Advanced Cold Rolling 201 but he proposed and designed it. Mark was an Adjunct Professor at Wright State University, Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Material Sciences Engineering, Dayton, Ohio from 2006 to 2009.

The latest in his list of awards are the Presidential Citation issued by the AIST Board of Directors in May 2023 and the Hot Sheet Rolling Best Paper Award issued by the AIST Hot Sheet Rolling Technology Committee in 2022. I am nominating Mark E. Zipf for the Adolf Martens Memorial Steel Lecture award because his passion and expertise that I noticed during his lecture on Sheet Processing & Finishing Lines prompted me to interact with him. Then, my interaction with him, in and outside the Sheet Processing & Finishing Lines lecture hall prompted me to research more about him. And I realized that his personality is commensurate with his portfolio!

Peter Hodgson

Peter Hodgson is a Professor in the Institute for Frontier Materials at Deakin University in Geelong, Australia. Professor Hodgson has tremendous achievements as founder and director (until 2014) of the institute with more than 200 employees and students. As director, he had been an exceptional leader who had been widely admired by all members of the institute. In 2004 he was made an Alfred Deakin Professor of the University for exceptional contributions to research and awarded an ARC Federation Fellow by the Australian Research Council. Professor Hodgson is an outstanding expert and world leader in the development and processing of novel metals and alloys with an emphasis on advanced steels. His research includes steel processing, the development of new alloys as well as downstream ferrous manufacturing processes associated primarily with the automotive industry. He has been the principal supervisor of 45 PhD students. Over the past 30 years he has accumulated an outstanding publication record with more than 500 journal and conference papers which have been cited more than 13,000 times (h-index of 59). A particularly seminal contribution of his research is related to developing fine grained ferrite in low-carbon steels. Further, exceptional and well-cited contributions include work related to mathematical modelling of hot-rolled low carbon steels, the stability of retained austenite in transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) steels, interface precipitation in microalloyed steels as well as recrystallization in austenite including in austenitic stainless steels. For example, the studies on interface precipitation were augmented by engaging in advanced experimental studies including atom probe tomography. Professor Hodgson’s impact on the steel research community is also well documented by his many plenary talks and keynote lectures at conferences, e.g. most recently at the Thermo Mechanical Processing (TMP) conference in 2022. He is a superb lecturer who gives his presentations in a very engaging and well-organized style. Before joining Deakin University, Professor Hodgson was working in the steel industry at BHP Research. Drawing from his industrial experience he has been at the forefront of combining academic research with its industrial application. Further, he has been a leader in establishing international collaborations. Here, from an Australian perspective, he has emphasized collaborations with India and China. In summary, Professor Hodgson would be very deserving to be selected as the Alfred Martens Steel Memorial Lecturer.

Dengqi Bai

Dr. Dengqi Bai is a world-renowned physical metallurgist with expertise in steel plate products (especially linepipe, weathering, offshore, and accelerated cooled steels) and open- and closed-die forgings, and has made important contributions to understanding structure/property relationships in these products.  In the linepipe area, he helped develop X80, X100, and X120.  He was a key contributor in the startup of major capital projects at SSAB Americas, viz., the installation of:  the first quench line at the SSAB Alabama plant, vacuum tank degassing and the development of clean steel practices at the SSAB Iowa plant, and intensified accelerated cooling (MULPIC or MULti-Purpose Interrupted Cooling) at the Alabama plant.  Furthermore, Dengqi has become an expert in a number of other areas, viz., defect analysis (e.g. sponge, hot shortness, and slab corner cracking), Steckel mill rolling, slab reheat furnace modeling, austenite recrystallization, and development of rolling practices to maximize the consolidation of cast slabs.

For the past 23 years, he has worked for SSAB (and the former IPSCO) in various research engineering positions.  In 2005, he was appointed to the Steering Committee for the “Frontier Pipe Unit” at IPSCO.  He has been a Principal Research Engineer for the past six years.  In these positions, he has had increasing responsibility for the development of as-rolled plate products.  He was extremely helpful to the Director of R&D in designing, constructing, equipping, and staffing a new R&D facility in Iowa, which opened in 2010.  In particular, he played a strong role in designing a state-of-the-art Metallography Laboratory, developing practices, and training research analysts.  Since 2010, he has been very active mentoring students, including graduate students at the Colorado School of Mines, Missouri S&T, and Purdue U. – Northwest, as well as SSAB Research co-ops and interns.  Dengqi worked at ExxonMobil Corporate Strategic Research from 1998 to 2000.  He also worked as a Manager of Technical Services in the Forging and Heat Treatment Division of Dongan Aircraft Engine Manufacturing Company (1982 to 1990).

Dengqi has been very active in AIST/ISS since he became a member in 1999.  He is a member of the Metallurgy – Processing, Products, and Applications, and Plate Rolling Technology Committees.  He progressed through positions of increasing responsibility to become the Chairman of the MPPATC in 2013 to 2014.  He helped organize international symposia at MS&T Conferences on Precipitation in Steels (2004) and High Strength Steels for Energy Applications (2012).  He also gave invited talks at PRTC meetings on “Application of MULPIC at a Steckel Mill” (2021) and “Effect of M/A on the Mechanical Properties of Low-Carbon Microalloyed Steels” (2023).  He is the winner of the AIST Hunt-Kelly Award (2020), AISI Medal Finalist Award (2022), and International Metallographic Society First Place Award (2015), as well as a two-time winner of the Gil Speich Award for best paper on the application of physical metallurgy (2008 and 2018).

Dengqi has an MS and PhD in Metallurgical Engineering from McGill U. (1993 and 1996), and was a Post-Doc Fellow at McGill U. (1996 to 1998).  He also has a BS in Material Science and Engineering from Northwestern Polytechnical U. (1982).  He is the author of 60 publications, and he has two U.S. patents.  The patents relate to the hot leveling of a microalloyed steel to increase strength through strain-induced precipitation, and this process has been referred to as “cool deformation”.  One of the fruits of his PhD thesis was a regression equation for the determination of the no austenite recrystallization temperature (Tnr).  This equation is well-known to rolling mill metallurgists worldwide and is important in the development of sound controlled rolling practices.

John Ågren

John Ågren is a Professor Emeritus (2020 to present) in materials science and engineering and physical metallurgy at KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. John received his Master of Science (1975) and PhD (1981) degrees at KTH. The title of his dissertation was “Computer simulations of diffusional reactions in multicomponent alloys with special applications to steel”. His PhD advisor was Prof. Mats Hillert. John has advised 30 PhD students and currently advises 3 PhD students at KTH.

John has been associated with KTH as a researcher, professor (physical and mechanical metallurgy), and department head since 1982. From 1991 to 2017, he served as a Chaired Professor in Materials Science and Engineering and was Department Head of Materials Science and Engineering from 1993 to 1997. He previously worked as a Scientist at ManLabs Inc. (MA, USA) and is a Visiting Professor at Northwestern University (IL, USA). From 1988 to 1990, John was a Guest Scientist at the Max Planck Institut fur Eisenforschung (Dusseldorf, Germany). He has been a member of the scientific advisory boards of the Max Planck Institut fur Metallforschung (Stuttgart, Germany) and Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science (Leoben, Austria). He has also served on the Swedish Institute for Metals Research Board of Directors, as Director of the Brinell Centre – Inorganic Interfacial Engineering (a Vinnova Competency Center), on the Consortium for Materials Technology for Thermal Power Generation Board of Directors, as Chairman of graduate studies in mechanical and materials engineering at KTH, as a member of the KTH faculty board, and as Director of the Vinnova Competence Center Hero-m at KTH focused on fast, intelligent, sustainable and cost-efficient product development for Swedish industry.

John was one of the founders of Thermo-Calc Software AB in 1997. Between 1997 to 2000, he served on the Thermo-Calc Software AB Board of Directors; he has been Chairman since 2001. Thermo-Calc Software AB provides and develops computational tools to predict and understand materials properties, enabling the generation of computational materials data without costly, time-consuming experiments or estimations based upon limited data available.

John has been the recipient of several prestigious awards and recognitions. He is a member of the IVA (Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences), a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), a Fellow of ASM International, received the Hume-Rothery Award from The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS), received the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) Award (Japan), Sefström Medal, Jacob Wallenberg Foundation Award, Gibbs Triangle Award, ASM Gold Medal, and ASM Gibbs Award. He was also Honorary Chairman of the International Conference on Diffusion in Solids and Liquids in 2005.

John has published over 200 journal articles within the areas of phase transformations, diffusion, and thermodynamics with an emphasis on modeling and simulations. John’s expertise covers a wide range of materials such as steels, superalloys, and cemented carbides, as well as topics like powder metallurgical processing and heat treatment of steels. He has served as an Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Materials Science and Engineering and Journal of Refractory Metals and Hard Materials, and as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Phase Equilibria and Diffusion. John is a member of the Board of Governors of Acta Materialia. He has also been a reviewer for the Swedish Research Council and Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (Netherlands). John is a member the TMS Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) and Steels Committees and was a core team member for the TMS study on modeling across length scales.

John has organized 5 international conferences in Stockholm, Sweden, including 2 as Chairman. He has also organized/co-organized several international conferences and served on steering and/or program committees, including Calphad XXXI (2002), (Solid-Solid Phase Transformations in Inorganic Materials) PTM 2005 (2005), the International Symposium on Inorganic Interfacial Engineering, Hillert Symposium of Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Migrating Interfaces in Steels and Other Complex Alloys (2004).