September_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 | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 0 6 0 EMERGING PROFESSIONALS Resources on ASM Connect Andrew Frerichs, EPC Co-Chair Without doubt, conferences provide a great number of benefits to students and Emerging Professionals, includ- ing an opportunity to showcase your work, expand your horizons, and network with members throughout the society. If you were looking forward to experiencing all the insightful, engaging, and fun activities planned for IMAT 2020 in Cleveland this year, I imagine you were sad to see it cancelled. I know I was. Society mem- bers and staff worked for years to bring this event to reality, and I know IMAT 2020 would have been a showcase of all the great parts of ASM International. Each year, the Emerging Professionals Committee (EPC) hosts a symposiumon important topics for individuals who are at the beginning of their careers. During this sympo- sium and other ASM conference events, I have the honor of conversing with students and Emerging Professionals about their many joys and concerns, such as excitement about getting published, how to find a mentor, and concern for what the future brings for materials engineering. These are crucial conversations and an often undervalued, intangible benefit of in-person interaction. The Emerging Professionals Committee recognizes how the loss of an in-person conference this year affects those just getting started with ASM. As a result, the EPC is working to provide the community with content and resources via the newly introduced ASM Connect platform. A new, student- and Emerging Professional-focused com- munity will be introduced on ASM Connect in the very near future—one that is designed to provide content you might have missed and offer you a place to ask the questions on your mind. We want this to be a place for you, your needs, and your development in ASM. Keep an eye out for the offi- cial notice when this community opens! While we can’t meet this fall, I look forward to interact- ing with you soon on ASM Connect. WOMEN IN ENGINEERING This profile series introduces lead- ing materials scientists from around the world who happen to be females. Here we speak with Elizabeth Perepezko, associate director, research at Zimmer Biomet, Warsaw, Ind. What part of your job do you like most? My job is never boring, no day is a duplicate of the pre- vious day, and there are always new challenges to find cre- ative solutions. I enjoy the challenge. What is your greatest professional achievement? Freshman year in undergrad, I attended a seminar on orthopedic biomaterials and after that I was hooked on the topic with the goal of working at an orthopedic device man- ufacturer. Fifteen years ago, I moved to Indiana to start my career as a project engineer at Biomet Orthopedics, which was my dream job. What is your engineering background? I have a bachelor’s in materials science and engineer- ing, and a master’s in biomedical engineering, orthopedic biomechanics. My first job after grad school was in the field of physical rehabilitation modalities including functional electrical stimulation (FES) and robotics for recovering stroke patients, so you could say I’ve covered many of the subfields of engineering with materials/chemistry, biology/ medicine, mechanics, and computer programming. What attracted you to engineering? I have always been interested in science and how things work, and having a father who is an engineering pro- fessor provided me with an outlet to learn more about vari- ous fields of science/engineering. We would go to Chemistry is Fun and Physics is Fun public lectures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, go to the geology department’s rock drop and get to play around in his lab in the materials sci- ence department. Did you ever consider doing something besides engineering? Forensics. Having done a lot of failure analysis, I enjoyed the challenge of figuring out how/why a device failed from reviewing the failed components. Forensics combines many scientific fields (failure analysis, chemistry, anatomy/physiology, etc.) and would provide an interesting challenge in “reverse engineering the crime” to figure out “who done it?” Favorite motto or quote: “If you do the bare minimum, expect bare minimum results. You want to be great, work to be great. Nothing just happens.” Perepezko EMERGING PROFESSIONALS Frerichs Do you know someone who should be featured in an upcoming Women in Engineering profile? Contact Vicki Burt at vicki.burt@asminternational.org .