Nov_Dec_AMP_Digital

4 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 | N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 ASM International 9639 Kinsman Road, Materials Park, OH 44073 Tel: 440.338.5151 • Fax: 440.338.4634 Frances Richards, Editor-in-Chief frances.richards@asminternational.org Joanne Miller, Editor joanne.miller@asminternational.org Ed Kubel, Larry Berardinis, and Erika Steinberg, Contributing Editors Jim Pallotta, Creative Director jim.pallotta@asminternational.org Jan Nejedlik, Layout and Design Kelly Sukol, Production Manager kelly.sukol@asminternational.org Press Release Editor magazines@asminternational.org EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Adam Farrow, Chair, Los Alamos National Lab John Shingledecker, Vice Chair, EPRI Somuri Prasad, Past Chair, Sandia National Lab Ellen Cerreta, Board Liaison, Los Alamos National Lab Tomasz Chojnacki, Caterpillar Inc. Mario Epler, Carpenter Technology Corp. Surojit Gupta, University of North Dakota Nia Harrison, Ford Motor Company Yaakov Idell, NIST Hideyuki Kanematsu, Suzuka National College of Technology Scott Olig, U.S. Naval Research Lab Anand Somasekharan, Los Alamos National Lab Kumar Sridharan, University of Wisconsin Jaimie Tiley, U.S. Air Force Research Lab ASMBOARDOF TRUSTEES Frederick E. Schmidt , Jr., President David U. Furrer, Vice President William E. Frazier, Immediate Past President Craig D. Clauser, Treasurer Prem K. Aurora Ellen K. Cerreta Ryan M. Deacon Larry D. Hanke Roger A. Jones Thomas M. Moore Sudipta Seal Judith A. Todd John D. Wolodko William T. Mahoney, Secretary and Chief Executive Officer STUDENT BOARDMEMBERS Swetha Barkam, Allison Fraser, Rachael Stewart Individual readers of Advanced Materials & Processes may, without charge, make single copies of pages therefrom for per- sonal or archival use, or may freely make such copies in such numbers as are deemed useful for educational or research purposes and are not for sale or resale. Permission is granted to cite or quote fromarticles herein, provided customary acknowledgment of the authors and source is made. The acceptance and publication of manuscripts in Advanced Materials & Processes does not imply that the reviewers, editors, or publisher accept, approve, or endorse the data, opinions, and conclusions of the authors. H ard to believe as it may seem, we’ve come to the final AM&P issue of 2017 and we are already planning 2018 activities. Combined with three major materials con- ferences in a row—MS&T, Heat Treat, and ISTFA—it has been a very busy fall season. We hope thatmany of you had a chance to attend a conference or two. If you did, I would be interest- ed in hearing your opinion on the highlights. For me, besides the in-person networking that will never be replaced by social media, I find the special lectures to be extremely worthwhile and entertaining. Fol- lowing are a few gems from these talks: At MS&T, the TMS/ASM Joint Distinguished Lectureship in Materials and So- ciety was presented by Alexander King, FASM, director of the DOE’s Critical Mate- rials Institute. In his talk, “What Do We Need and How Will We Get It,” King made the point that today’s cellphones contain roughly 70 elements. As the world’s middle class grows from about 1.9 billion people today to 5.2 billion by 2030, we can assume that all of these consumers will want phones. Accordingly, what we need is “the whole periodic table and more of it.” But today’s ores are now weaker than in the past, so we need to do more mining to get less material. King said we need to find ways to diversify sources, look for alternatives to different materials, and make better use of materials by recycling, although he cautioned that “we can’t recycle ourselves out of trouble.” His last slide showed a “tree of life” image and he pointed out that only 28 elements are essential for all life, from simple bacteria to complex life forms. King says it is time to start thinking about making advanced technology with fewer elements. In the Alpha Sigma Mu lecture, Joseph Newkirk, FASM, professor at Mis- souri University of Science and Technology, tackled a similar topic in his talk, “Creating the Materials of Tomorrow.” Newkirk began by sharing images from the 1950s of how people envisioned the future. One showed a self-driving hover car with people playing cards inside. He said that although these transportation ideas have not come to fruition, nobody predicted the rise of personal comput- ing devices such as cellphones and tablets. He says it turned out that “making things smaller is easier than lifting steel and people into space.” Newkirk also reminded the audience that the world we now live in didn’t exist before 1800 and that future technologies will likely involve robotics development, a manned Mars mission, and cheap clean energy. He ended by calling for more visionaries in the materials fields along with improved funding. Speaking of visionaries, one of the most interesting lectures at the Heat Treat conference paid tribute to induction heating pioneer George Pfaffmann, FASM, presented by Ronald Akers and Aquil Ahmad, FASM. The men shared sto- ries about Pfaffmann’s distinguished career, including his key patent for Tocco Inc. involving induction hardening of valve seats, which enabled the switch from leaded to unleaded gasoline. Pfaffmann was also considered a tough negotiator during meetings. When confronted with pricing questions, he was known to say, “We don’t sell nuts and bolts, we sell technology.” Who could argue with that? As 2017 winds down, we wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season. See you next year! frances.richards@asminternational.org INSPIRING LECTURES KEY TO SUCCESSFUL FALL CONFERENCES