George S. Ansell Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Metallurgical and Materials Engineering plays a role in all manufacturing processes which convert raw materials into useful products adapted to human needs. The primary goal of the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering program is to provide students with a fundamental knowledge-base associated with materials-processing, their properties, and their selection and application.
The emphasis in the Department is on teaching and research focused toward materials processing operations which encompass: the conversion of mineral and chemical resources into metallic, ceramic or polymeric materials; the synthesis of new materials; refining and processing to produce high performance materials for applications from consumer products to automobiles, aerospace and electronics; the development of mechanical, chemical and physical properties of materials related to their processing and structure; and the selection of materials for specific applications.
Recent Departmental Highlights:
May 2012
Prof. John Speer received the AIST Distinguished Member and Fellow Award at the 2012 AIST Tech Conference. The Association for Iron and Steel Technology gives this award to Prof. Speer "In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of ferrous physical metallurgy through extensive industry research, quality teaching and mentoring for students, and dedicated service to AIST at all levels of the Association .”
Graduating senior awards were announced at the annual MME spring BBQ. Daniel Harrison and Jennifer Bollig received the Outstanding Graduating Senior Award. Jordan Shoemaker was the recipient of the Melver-MME Faculty Award. The Mary and Charles Cavanaugh Memorial Award went to Alan Carter. Ellen Verkler and Brent Goodlet shared the Clark B. Carpenter Award. Cory Foxworth was recognized with the Henry W. Kaanta Award. The H.L. Hazen Award in Process Metallurgy was received by Keegan Hammond. Congratulations to these award recipients and to all of the graduating seniors.
Prof. Jeffrey King was successful in obtaining funding for three different proposals which totaled in excess of $1M. He will be studying "Fuel Cycle Uncertainty and Perturbation Analysis in Support of Safeguards Decision-Making" with Prof. Cory Ahrens of the Applied Mathematics and Statistics Department. The other two proposals are for equipment -- "Upgrades to the CSM Neutron Imaging Beam-Line" and "Automated Serial Sectioning and Imaging in Support of Nuclear Materials Analysis."
Graduate student Caelen Anderson won 2nd place in the Minerals and Metallurgical Pocessing Journal Student Poster Contest - Graduate Division.
April 2012
Prof. Ivar Reimanis was recognized at the CSM annual awards ceremony. He was the receipent of the Dean's Excellence Award for 2012. This award is to recognize a full-time Colorado School of Mines academic faculty member who has demonstrated significant and meritorious achievement in both teaching and scholarship.
Prof. Ryan O'Hayre received the CSM Alumni Teaching Award for 2012 at the annual CSM awards ceremony. The award recognizes a CSM faculty member who demonstrates superior teaching at the undergraduate level over a period of several years.
Prof. Chester Van Tyne was recognized by the graduating seniors as the MME faculty member of the year for 2012.
Katie Gillespie, Jordan Rutledge, and Kayla Raddant-Rankin, 3 MME juniors, participated in the Science-Engineering-Technology Congressional Visit Days at Washington, D.C. as representatives of CSM and the Material Advantage society. During their visit, they met with Senator Michael Bennett (CO), Representative David McKinley (WV), and their staff members. Representative McKinley is one of the only engineers serving in congress. The objective of SETCVD is to underscore the long-term importance of science, engineering, and technology to the nation through meetings with congressional decision makers.
Former ASPPRC graduate student Courtney Nowill, Prof. John Speer, Reseach Prof. Emmanuel DeMoor and Prof. David Matlock were awarded the 2012 Jerry Silver Best Paper Award by the Association for Iron and Steel Technology (AIST). Their paper was based on Nowill's PhD thesis and was entitled "Effect of Austenitizing Conditions on Hardenability of Boron Added Microalloyed Steel."
March 2012
MINES WINS MATERIALS BOWL
The MME team captured its third Materials Bowl championship within the last four years by a comeback victory over the Gators from the University of Florida. The final round of the tournament was hard fought with UF going out to an early lead, but CSM came back strong and had victory in hand with 3 questions reamining in the match. Captain Grant Hudish, Greg Lehnhoff, Lydia Collins and Jordan Shoemaker did an outstanding job. They knew the major constituent in AISI1015, the highest metling metal and this year's president of AIME (Prof. Mishra from CSM). Prof. Bourne the coach stated that their success was due to the hard work they put into preparation for the contest. Over the six years of this event, the team from CSM has won three times. The Materials Bowal is an event at the TMS annual meeting, which was held in Orlando this year. When asked how they were going to celbrate the victory, Lehnhoff responded "We are going to Disney World!".
PhD graduate student Greg Lehnhoff was recognized by the Structural Materials Division (SMD) 2012 for the best graduate student poster at the TMS annual meeting. His work was co-authored by Prof. Kip Findley and described austenite stability during low cycle fatigue of steel.
On March 23 A. Finkl & Sons hosted Prof. Chester Van Tyne and 36 CSM students in a tour of their Chicago facilities. In the picture Ryan Rathbun (CSM BS MME '00, MS MME '02) provides insight on the vaccum arc degasser, which was invented by Chuck Finkl.
PhD graduate student Marc Rubat du Merac has been invited to make a presentation on sintering at the Advanced Ceramic and Nuclear-focused workshop, which will be held in Albuquerque in May.
Research Prof. Richard Ahrenkiel has been invited to give a talk on carrier recombination in solar photovoltaic materials at the 2012 International Symposium on Optoelectronic Materials and Devices.
At the March meeting of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of ASM International, four MME undergraduates were recognized with scholarships. The receipents of these awards are Reese Thompson, Kayla Johnson, Paul Wilson and Tiffany Oney.