inui

Dr. Haruyuki Inui (photo), professor of materials science and engineering from Kyoto University (Japan), has been granted the Humboldt Research Award in November 2021. This renowned award, endowed with 60,000 euros, is presented annually by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to internationally recognized scientists from abroad to support collaborative projects with researchers in Germany.

Prof. Inui is an expert on intermetallic phases which play a significant role in the development of new types of structural materials for extreme environmental conditions, e.g. in the field of combustion processes. For decades, the fundamental research work at Kyoto has been trend-setting for world-wide research in this field, which eventually enabled the commercial use of TiAl-based materials in aircraft engines.

The main topic of his research is the experimental investigation of the deformation of metallic and intermetallic materials from the nano- up to the macro-scale. In doing so, he spans the range from complex iron- and cobalt-based superalloys to novel intermetallic phases and so-called high entropy alloys – in the materials science and engineering community currently a hot topic to which the award winner has also contributed substantially.

Prof. Inui plans to spend his stay associated with the Humboldt Research Award in Germany beginning in 2022, as a guest of KIT where he will collaborate with Prof. Martin Heilmaier (Institute for Applied Materials – Materials Science and Engineering) and in close cooperation with partners at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung Düsseldorf (Prof. Dierk Raabe), the Ruhr-University Bochum (Prof. Gunther Eggeler) and the University of Bayreuth (Prof. Uwe Glatzel).

Foto Fabry

Dr.-Ing. Hans Chen was awarded Manfred Hirschvogel Preis for the best PhD thesis at Mechanical Engineering Faculty of KIT. His thesis on "Microstructure and Properties of Equiatomic Alloys From the Ta-Nb-Mo-Cr-Ti-Al System" provides outstanding, internationally recognized contributions to manufacturing, characterization and properties of novel Al-containing, refractory metal based high entropy alloys. By the application of scale-bridging characterization methods, he proved that single-phase, chemically homogeneous microstructures can be obtained for a variety of chemical compositions within this complex alloy system. In contradiction to the expectations at the time, crystallographic ordering occurs in many of these alloys and alters the low temperature ductility. Dr.-Ing. Chen selected the application of thermal analysis methods rather than diffraction techniques in order to verify the appearance of order. Diffraction techniques do not necessarily provide unequivocal evidence for disordered crystal structures due to the multiple occupation of lattice sites in these complex alloys. By the analysis of compression tests and nanohardness, the influence of lattice distortion on solid solution strengthening in these alloys was studied considering the intrinsic temperature dependence of strength in body centered cubic alloys. His contributions are basis for ongoing work on the subject in our research group and we appreciate the distinction of his work. The award comes along a 5000 Euro prize.

B.Sc. Eric Jung was awarded third place at the 13^th Dörrenberg StudienAWARD for his bachelor thesis on "Characterisation of the boundary layer states and resulting fatigue strengths of carbonitrided PM components as a function of porosity". We congratulate Mr. Jung on his excellent presentation of the materials engineering background of carbonitriding of sintered steels to the jury and the related achievements in his bachelor thesis.

Dr.-Ing. Aditya Srinivasan Tirunilai's talk on "Discontinuous Deformation of FCC High and Medium Entropy Alloys at Close to 0 K" was award best presentation of the Symposium ST04 "High Entropy Materials - From Fundamentals to Potential Applications" at MRS Spring Meeting 2021. The award comes with a $250 prize.

IAM-WK supports the production of protective masks by Fab Lab Karlsruhe for St. Vincentius-Krankenhaus.