October AMP_Digital

HIGHL IGHTS A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 9 6 2 EMERGING PROFESSIONALS Nontraditional Paths of the Emerging Professional Ellen E. Wright As a graduate student, I was informed that there are three tradi- tional career routes for an engineer with a Ph.D.—academia, national labs, and industry. Often, a post-doctorate is strongly recommended for the first two options, which was exactly the route taken by many bright students I knew. However, the third choice seemed more elusive to me, particularly due to the broad spectrum of different careers represented by the sin- gle term “industry.” I was under the impression that being in industry as a metallurgist meant working for a company that focuses on a specific process or manufactured product. I didn’t consider engineering consulting as an option—which spans across many processes and products—until I took a graduate-level course on failure analysis. Current students and emerging professionals have indicated that my career path seems unusual and underrepresented as an option in many grad- uate programs. However, pursuing a career in engineering consulting can be a natural transition for students trained to think critically and solve industrially-relevant and challeng- ing problems. My consulting career requires me to rely on engineering fundamentals and encourages me to think cre- atively about how to test hypotheses, which is exactly what a Ph.D. program prepares students for. In consulting, I am able to work on projects across many industries. The project variety and flexibility are exciting and remind me of learning about and helping other graduate students with their many diverse research projects. Contributor Spotlight Kevin Anderson, Ph.D., FASM Mercury Marine Dr. Kevin Anderson is a Fellow of ASM and a member of the National Academy of Engineering for his work on sustainable aluminum alloy design. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in metallurgical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Anderson was a leader of aircraft materials and physical metallurgy at Reynolds Aluminum Research and is presently a senior technical fellow for Brunswick Corp. in the Mercury Marine Division in Fond Du Lac, Wis. In this role, he is responsible for both materials research and appli- cations across the corporation. Anderson is an inventor of high damage tolerant diecasting alloys that are made from 100% recycled aluminum and are registered with the Alumi- num Association. In addition to receiving several important industrial awards for his work, Anderson holds over 30 U.S. patents with the vast majority successfully in production. He has taught aluminum metallurgy on an international level since 1999 and serves as the instructor of the profes- sional development course Aluminum and Its Alloys at ASM headquarters and for ASM’s customized on-site training. He is a past chairman of the Advanced Casting Research Con- sortium at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the Materi- als Innovation Committee of TMS, and is a member of the Grainger Institute for Engineering Advisory Board at the Uni- versity of Wisconsin. Anderson is the founding president of the Fond Du Lac STEM Academy (grades 3-5) and STEM Insti- tute (grades 6-12), public charter schools associated with the Fond Du Lac, Wis., school district. His contributions to ASM publications include serv- ing as volume co-editor of ASM Handbook, Volume 2A: Alu- minum Science and Technology and the recently released ASM Handbook, Volume 2B: Properties and Selection of Alu- minum Alloys . VOLUNTEERISM COMMITTEE Profile of a Volunteer Ally Fraser, MSE Graduate Student, Lehigh University Like many freshman engineer- ing students, Ally Fraser took a survey course for a taste of all the disciplines. “Materials science really stuck out for me. I love working with my hands and in the lab with metals, so I dove off the deep end and got as involved as I could!” Finishing her bachelor’s degree at Lehigh University, Fraser decided to pursue graduate studies with her research mentor. Focusing onmetallurgy research, she hit the ground running with a National Science Foundation project working on nickel-based super alloys for naval nuclear propulsion. Fraser’s first encounter with ASM was at the Lehigh Val- ley Chapter’s Young Members Night with a career panel fea- turing grad students, professors, and members from nearby Carpenter Technology. “Our lab manager Laura Moyer encouraged me to join and take advantage of the opportu- VOLUNTEER PROFILE Wright Fraser