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ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES •
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2014
71
HIGHLIGHTS...
Emerging Professionals
ASM
news
Members
in the News
IN MEMORIAM
Word has been received at ASM Headquarters of the
death of Life Members
Nev Gokcen, FASM,
of Palos
Verdes Estates, Calif. (Oregon Chapter),
Alan Gorton,
Marietta, Ga., (Atlanta Chapter), and
Marshall L. Sev-
erson
of Sherman Oaks, Calif. (San Fernando Valley
Chapter).
Singh inducted as a Fellow
in the Royal Society of Chemistry
Prof. N.B. Singh, FASM,
of the Uni-
versity of Maryland Baltimore County, a
Fellow of ASM International, SPIE-The
International Society of Optics and Pho-
tonics, and OSA-The Optical Society of
America (OSA), was inducted as a Fellow
of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).
Singh is internationally recognized for
research in the area of electronic, optical, energy storage,
radiation sensor bulk and thin film materials, and manage-
rial leadership.
New NSF Award Funds Novel Manufacturing Method
Diana Lados,
associate
professor of mechanical
engineering at Worcester
Polytechnic Institute (WPI),
Mass., and founding direc-
tor of the university’s Inte-
grative Materials Design
Center (iMdc), received a three-year, $424,000 award from
the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the de-
velopment of a new way to manufacture metal-ceramic com-
posites, which can be used to make vehicles lighter and more
energy efficient, while significantly increasing their perform-
ance. Research will focus on ceramic-reinforced metal ma-
trix composites. Lados was the winner of the 2013 ASM
Silver Medal.
Hickton Assumes Presidency of ITA Board
Dawne S. Hickton,
vice chair, president, and chief execu-
tive officer (CEO) of RTI International Metals Inc., Pitts-
burgh, has been tapped as the first female president of the
executive board for the International Titanium Association
(ITA). Hickton says she would like to es-
tablish a permanent path for other women
to follow, so that they too can develop
meaningful careers in the global titanium
industry. She plans to establish a “Women
in Titanium” committee as a way to inspire
young women to consider careers and
leadership roles in the industry.
Pankaj Sharma
Buckman International
M
aterials and corrosion failure analysis
is a very specialized field, where engi-
neers use the skills of materials, mechani-
cal, welding, and chemical engineering to
devise methods that answer the question of
what went wrong with particular components. In addition,
materials engineers also use knowledge in various technical
areas such as metallurgy, corrosion, welding, nondestructive
testing, materials characterization, corrosion inhibition chem-
istry, and ASME/API/NACE/ASTM codes and standards.
A materials engineer plays a lead role in the failure analy-
sis and determines whether a component or product failed
in service or if failure occurred in manufacturing or during
production processing. For example, industrial power gener-
ation equipment includes gas turbines, heat exchangers,
boilers, reactors, and pressure vessels as key plant compo-
nents. It is prudent to investigate the root cause of the cor-
rosion problems in this equipment as soon as possible to
minimize further financial and production losses.
Corrosion failure is one of the largest expenses in the
U.S. economy, yet it rarely receives the attention it de-
serves. Corrosion costs money and lives, resulting in dan-
gerous failures and increased costs for everything from
utilities to transportation and more. For example, in 2010,
a report commissioned by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board
concluded a catastrophic heat exchanger explosion and fire
killed seven workers at the Tesoro Refinery in Anacortes,
Wash. Metallurgical failure investigations reported that a
catastrophic rupture occurred in a nearly 40-year-old car-
bon steel heat exchanger due to a high temperature hydro-
gen attack. In conclusion, materials failure analysis is vital
to the U.S. economy as it can reveal any number of prob-
lems with industrial equipment.
The Impact of Materials Engineers on Economy and Safety
Buehler Best Paper Award
The Awards Committee of the In-
ternational Metallographic Society
presents an annual award for the best
paper in the IMS journal:
Metallogra-
phy and Microstructural Analysis
(
MMA
). The 2014 Buehler Best
Paper award winners are: S. Nafisi
of Evraz North America, Regina,
Saskatchewan, and R. Ghomashchi,
University of Adelaide, Australia, for their research paper titled,
“Microstructural Evolution of Electromagnetically Stirred Feed-
stock Semi-SolidMetal (SSM) Billets During Reheating Process,”
MM&A,
Vol 2, p 96-106. Presenting the award to Dr. Shahrooz
Nafisi is Richard Blackwell, FASM, IMS president, and Country
Manager of Buehler Canada.