Associate Professor Giovanni Zangari was awarded tenure.
Assistant Professor Leonid Zhigilei was promoted to Associate Professor and awarded tenure.
Saturday, January 1, 2005
Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf Elected TMS Fellow 2005
The highest honor bestowed by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, the honorary class of Fellow was established in 1962; Charter Fellows were inducted in 1963. To be inducted, a candidate must be recognized as an eminent authority and contributor within the broad field of metallurgy, with a strong consideration of outstanding service to the Society. The maximum number of living Fellows cannot exceed 100.
The following is an excerpt from a nomination letter.
...she has earned the respect and admiration of her colleagues and is recognized as the top contributor to understanding plasticity. She has devoted her entire career to developing this understanding in terms of low energy dislocation structures and has succeeded in using these structures to provide a unified approach that explains the details of the stages of work hardening, texture development, fatigue, creep, wear and other details of plasticity. For decades, she has been internationally recognized for her contributions to the field of plasticity. She extended her understanding of dislocation theory to give a basis for melting of metallic crystals, explaining the melting temperature and the localized structure of the liquid state. She won an award for that work in 1965. Bill Nix’s letter recognizes the dilemma of why she has not become a fellow of TMS before now. Being in her 80’s and of female gender adds motivation to bestow this award at this time.
There is a second dimension to her contributions. She has applied her knowledge of plasticity to sliding contacts and contact-spot wear in electrical brushes. Her success in this area has led to numerous patents and the development of metal fiber brushes that posses the highest current carrying capacity of any commercially available electric brush. Such a technical development stands to revolutionize electric motors and their uses. This work has resulted is the establishment of her company, HiPerCon. The list of patents and patent applications attest to the impact of her contributions in this area. Her creativity is outstanding and it is no surprise that her work on electric brushes lead to her thinking about how motors could be improved. Indeed such thought has resulted in the patenting of a new design for electric motors that exceeds performance of even superconducting motors on a per pound basis. The brilliance she demonstrates extends to the class room, to her students, and colleagues. Her joining the fellowship of TMS does both honor.
...she has earned the respect and admiration of her colleagues and is recognized as the top contributor to understanding plasticity. She has devoted her entire career to developing this understanding in terms of low energy dislocation structures and has succeeded in using these structures to provide a unified approach that explains the details of the stages of work hardening, texture development, fatigue, creep, wear and other details of plasticity. For decades, she has been internationally recognized for her contributions to the field of plasticity. She extended her understanding of dislocation theory to give a basis for melting of metallic crystals, explaining the melting temperature and the localized structure of the liquid state. She won an award for that work in 1965. Bill Nix’s letter recognizes the dilemma of why she has not become a fellow of TMS before now. Being in her 80’s and of female gender adds motivation to bestow this award at this time.
There is a second dimension to her contributions. She has applied her knowledge of plasticity to sliding contacts and contact-spot wear in electrical brushes. Her success in this area has led to numerous patents and the development of metal fiber brushes that posses the highest current carrying capacity of any commercially available electric brush. Such a technical development stands to revolutionize electric motors and their uses. This work has resulted is the establishment of her company, HiPerCon. The list of patents and patent applications attest to the impact of her contributions in this area. Her creativity is outstanding and it is no surprise that her work on electric brushes lead to her thinking about how motors could be improved. Indeed such thought has resulted in the patenting of a new design for electric motors that exceeds performance of even superconducting motors on a per pound basis. The brilliance she demonstrates extends to the class room, to her students, and colleagues. Her joining the fellowship of TMS does both honor.
Leonid V. Zhigilei receives the National Science Foundation CAREER award for “Computer Modeling of Short Pulse Laser Interaction with Metals,” 2004.
This research program is aimed at obtaining a fundamental understanding of fast non-equilibrium processes induced by short pulse laser irradiation of metal surfaces as well as on the analysis of practical implications of the revealed physical picture for the advancement of laser technologies. The microscopic mechanisms of melting and recrystallization occurring under extreme superheating/undercooling conditions, parameters that define the glass forming ability in laser quenching, mechanisms of laser induced photomechanical damage and spallation, cluster ejection in laser ablation are among the research questions being addressed in this program.
Dmitriy Ivanov, a PhD student initially supported by this grant, graduated in November of 2004 and accepted a research position at the National Centre for Laser Applications, Galway , Ireland . Two graduate students, Zhibin Lin and William Duff, as well as an undergraduate student Carlos Sevilla are currently working on this research program. Stephen Guy, an undergraduate student majoring in Computer Engineering, is leading the development of an educational software package for high school students. The educational tool uses computer modeling as a medium to provide vivid illustrations of science phenomena discussed in school classrooms and to engage and fascinate students with science and engineering.
Computational Materials Group web site: http://www.faculty.virginia.edu/CompMat/
Dmitriy Ivanov, a PhD student initially supported by this grant, graduated in November of 2004 and accepted a research position at the National Centre for Laser Applications, Galway , Ireland . Two graduate students, Zhibin Lin and William Duff, as well as an undergraduate student Carlos Sevilla are currently working on this research program. Stephen Guy, an undergraduate student majoring in Computer Engineering, is leading the development of an educational software package for high school students. The educational tool uses computer modeling as a medium to provide vivid illustrations of science phenomena discussed in school classrooms and to engage and fascinate students with science and engineering.
Computational Materials Group web site: http://www.faculty.virginia.edu/CompMat/
Jim Howe receives the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society's "Champion H. Mathewson Award."
By TMS
James Howe
Paper: “Static and In-Situ High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy Investigations of the Atomic Structure and Dynamics of Massive Transformation Interfaces in a Ti-Al Alloy”Metallurgical & Materials Transactions, vol. 33A, August 2002
Biography: James Howe is a professor and director of the Electron Microscope Facility at the University of Virginia. His current research emphasizes the application of high resolution and analytical transmission electron microscope techniques to study the mechanisms and kinetics of phase transformations in nanoparticles and the behavior of interphase boundaries at the atomic level
Prof. Howe has received several prestigious awards for his research, including a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation in 1985, a Humboldt Senior Research Award from the von Humboldt Foundation in Germany in 1999, and the Materials Science Research Silver Medal from ASM International in 2000. He was elected a Fellow of ASM International in 1997.
Quote: “Metallurgical and Materials Transactions is one of the top journals in the field due to its excellent peer review system. To be recognized by this system as making a notable contribution to metallurgical or materials science is truly a great honor. TMS meetings are an ideal forum to exchange ideas and the research reported in this paper is an outcome of that process. It evolved over a period of several years based on discussions at various TMS meetings and was first presented during the Massive Transformation Symposium at the TMS Fall Meeting in 2002. It is particularly satisfying to share this award with fellow TMS members.”
—James Howe on behalf of the Champion B. Mathewson Award Winners
Paper: “Static and In-Situ High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy Investigations of the Atomic Structure and Dynamics of Massive Transformation Interfaces in a Ti-Al Alloy”Metallurgical & Materials Transactions, vol. 33A, August 2002
Biography: James Howe is a professor and director of the Electron Microscope Facility at the University of Virginia. His current research emphasizes the application of high resolution and analytical transmission electron microscope techniques to study the mechanisms and kinetics of phase transformations in nanoparticles and the behavior of interphase boundaries at the atomic level
Prof. Howe has received several prestigious awards for his research, including a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation in 1985, a Humboldt Senior Research Award from the von Humboldt Foundation in Germany in 1999, and the Materials Science Research Silver Medal from ASM International in 2000. He was elected a Fellow of ASM International in 1997.
—James Howe on behalf of the Champion B. Mathewson Award Winners
Friday, November 19, 2004
Discovery of New Metal Could Revolutionize Industry
November 19, 2004 - UVa Top News Daily by Fariss Samarrai
The term “cross-disciplinary research” had not crossed the minds of physicist Joe Poon or materials scientist Gary Shiflet when they first met in 1985. They just realized they had a common interest in “quasi crystals,” materials that have an unusual atomic structure.
At that first meeting, Shiflet was holding an overdue library textbook on phase transformation. Poon needed the book for a class he was teaching. They didn’t argue about it. Instead, they formed a collaboration that has continued ever since, and now includes other researchers from the College’s physics department and the materials science department at the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
“It was a natural fit for us to work together and share our knowledge and equipment and resources,” Shiflet said, “that’s why this collaboration has lasted so long.”
Besides, the two scientists like each other. “Our work has been very productive,” Poon said.
No doubt. Throughout the years, Poon and Shiflet have won several million dollars in grants for their investigations into novel materials. Early on, they received a grant from theOffice of the Vice Provost for Research, who at the time was Gene Block. “That academic enhancement grant from within the University kept us going before the big government funding came,” Poon said.
As a result of years of collaborative work, the research team has discovered a nonmagnetic amorphous material that is three times stronger than conventional steel and has superior anticorrosion properties.
A future variation of this material, called DARVA-Glass 101, could be used for making ship hulls, lighter automobiles, tall buildings, corrosion-resistant coatings, surgical instruments and recreational equipment. The scientists say commercial use of the wear-resistant material could be available within three to five years.
The material, made of steel alloys that possess a randomized arrangement of atoms — thus “amorphous” steel — was discovered by modifying an earlier version of amorphous steel known as DARVA-Glass 1, first reported by Poon and Shiflet at the Fall 2002 meeting of the Materials Research Society. This past spring they reported on the more advanced DARVA-Glass 101 in the Journal of Materials Research. A variety of popular newspapers and magazines covered the discovery, including the Washington Post, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the United Press International, and have touted the material as the next big thing in steel. Scientific American magazine recently named Poon and Shiflet to its annual list of the top 50 outstanding research leaders in science and technology for the year.
“Amorphous steels can potentially revolutionize the steel industry,” Poon said.
The Defense Department is particularly interested. The project is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the military’s research arm that supports investigations into seemingly futuristic materials and technologies, but with very real potential for applicability in the relatively near future.
“They have very high standards for success and progress and they are mission-oriented,” Poon said.
According to Poon and Shiflet, researchers have been making amorphous steel in very small quantities for years, but have had great difficulty “scaling up” the material to sizes large enough for practical use. Poon and Shiflet have succeeded in producing large-size amorphous steel samples that can be further scaled up in industrial labs for mass production. They achieved this by adding a small dose of a rare earth element — yttrium — to create DARVA-Glass 101.
The “glass” in the material’s name refers to the frozen liquid structure of the material, somewhat similar to glass that is a liquid made solid by rapid cooling. But DARVA-Glass 101 is an aluminum-based metal composite frozen to a solid state by rapid cooling.
The team is continually varying the recipe for its materials by adding a pinch of this element, a dash of that, and by trying different heating temperatures and cooling rates. They are always tweaking the product, “trying to fool nature,” as Shiflet puts it — always seeking to come up with something better and stronger.
Most of the lab work is done by co-investigator Vijayabarathi Ponnambalam, a U.Va. materials physicist. During the last two years, the team has produced more than 100 variations of their material on the journey toward the creation of DARVA-Glass 101.
“The problem with making a high-tech material is that, while nature gives you something, it also takes something away,” Shiflet said. “We have been able to achieve great strength and nonmagnetic properties for the material, but it is still somewhat brittle.”
They have a ways to go to achieve near perfection.
“Discovery is going on all the time,” Poon said. “We need to toughen the material more. We can always make it better.”
But discovery is not done randomly. The research team continually revises its strategies based on each new knowledge gained, and what they think may happen if they try something else — perhaps something outrageous. They also use computer models to make rational guesses about how a metal may respond to different temperatures or to the introduction of new elements.
“Unlike previous variations of amorphous steel, DARVA-Glass 101 can be produced in sizable quantities, and it can be machined as well as manipulated like a plastic. “It can be squeezed, compressed, flattened and shaped.” Poon said.
The material is of interest to the Navy for making nonmagnetic ship hulls, particularly for submarines, which are detectable by the magnetic field of their hulls. The amorphous steel that the U.Va. team is refining also may be useful for producing lighter but harder armor-piercing projectiles. The publicly traded company Liquid metal Technologies owns an exclusive license to the amorphous steel invented by the U.Va. scientists.
At that first meeting, Shiflet was holding an overdue library textbook on phase transformation. Poon needed the book for a class he was teaching. They didn’t argue about it. Instead, they formed a collaboration that has continued ever since, and now includes other researchers from the College’s physics department and the materials science department at the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
“It was a natural fit for us to work together and share our knowledge and equipment and resources,” Shiflet said, “that’s why this collaboration has lasted so long.”
Besides, the two scientists like each other. “Our work has been very productive,” Poon said.
 |
Ships’ hulls, surgical instruments and tennis racquets are just a few of the ways
in which a new steel (below) could be used, said U.Va. researchers Joe Poon (left),
Gary Shiflet (center) and Vijayabarathi Ponnambalam.
The material could be available for commercial use within three to five years.
|
No doubt. Throughout the years, Poon and Shiflet have won several million dollars in grants for their investigations into novel materials. Early on, they received a grant from theOffice of the Vice Provost for Research, who at the time was Gene Block. “That academic enhancement grant from within the University kept us going before the big government funding came,” Poon said.
As a result of years of collaborative work, the research team has discovered a nonmagnetic amorphous material that is three times stronger than conventional steel and has superior anticorrosion properties.
A future variation of this material, called DARVA-Glass 101, could be used for making ship hulls, lighter automobiles, tall buildings, corrosion-resistant coatings, surgical instruments and recreational equipment. The scientists say commercial use of the wear-resistant material could be available within three to five years.
The material, made of steel alloys that possess a randomized arrangement of atoms — thus “amorphous” steel — was discovered by modifying an earlier version of amorphous steel known as DARVA-Glass 1, first reported by Poon and Shiflet at the Fall 2002 meeting of the Materials Research Society. This past spring they reported on the more advanced DARVA-Glass 101 in the Journal of Materials Research. A variety of popular newspapers and magazines covered the discovery, including the Washington Post, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the United Press International, and have touted the material as the next big thing in steel. Scientific American magazine recently named Poon and Shiflet to its annual list of the top 50 outstanding research leaders in science and technology for the year.
“Amorphous steels can potentially revolutionize the steel industry,” Poon said.
The Defense Department is particularly interested. The project is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the military’s research arm that supports investigations into seemingly futuristic materials and technologies, but with very real potential for applicability in the relatively near future.
“They have very high standards for success and progress and they are mission-oriented,” Poon said.
According to Poon and Shiflet, researchers have been making amorphous steel in very small quantities for years, but have had great difficulty “scaling up” the material to sizes large enough for practical use. Poon and Shiflet have succeeded in producing large-size amorphous steel samples that can be further scaled up in industrial labs for mass production. They achieved this by adding a small dose of a rare earth element — yttrium — to create DARVA-Glass 101.
The “glass” in the material’s name refers to the frozen liquid structure of the material, somewhat similar to glass that is a liquid made solid by rapid cooling. But DARVA-Glass 101 is an aluminum-based metal composite frozen to a solid state by rapid cooling.
The team is continually varying the recipe for its materials by adding a pinch of this element, a dash of that, and by trying different heating temperatures and cooling rates. They are always tweaking the product, “trying to fool nature,” as Shiflet puts it — always seeking to come up with something better and stronger.
Most of the lab work is done by co-investigator Vijayabarathi Ponnambalam, a U.Va. materials physicist. During the last two years, the team has produced more than 100 variations of their material on the journey toward the creation of DARVA-Glass 101.
“The problem with making a high-tech material is that, while nature gives you something, it also takes something away,” Shiflet said. “We have been able to achieve great strength and nonmagnetic properties for the material, but it is still somewhat brittle.”
They have a ways to go to achieve near perfection.
“Discovery is going on all the time,” Poon said. “We need to toughen the material more. We can always make it better.”
But discovery is not done randomly. The research team continually revises its strategies based on each new knowledge gained, and what they think may happen if they try something else — perhaps something outrageous. They also use computer models to make rational guesses about how a metal may respond to different temperatures or to the introduction of new elements.
“Unlike previous variations of amorphous steel, DARVA-Glass 101 can be produced in sizable quantities, and it can be machined as well as manipulated like a plastic. “It can be squeezed, compressed, flattened and shaped.” Poon said.
The material is of interest to the Navy for making nonmagnetic ship hulls, particularly for submarines, which are detectable by the magnetic field of their hulls. The amorphous steel that the U.Va. team is refining also may be useful for producing lighter but harder armor-piercing projectiles. The publicly traded company Liquid metal Technologies owns an exclusive license to the amorphous steel invented by the U.Va. scientists.
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