Folks -
I am just plugging a new book, that I am eager to read.
kind regards,
- Jim
Critical Materials, 1st Edition
by Alexander King
ISBN: 9780128187890
Elsevier
October 21, 2020
276 pages
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Description
Critical Materials takes a case-study approach, describing
materials supply-chain failures from the bronze age to present
day. It looks at why these failures occurred, what the consequences
were, and how they were resolved. It identifies key lessons to
guide responses to current and anticipated materials shortages
at a time when the world's growing middle class is creating
unprecedented demand for manufactured products and the increasingly
exotic materials that go into them. This book serves as a guide to
materials researchers and industrial end-users for finding effective
approaches to shortages of specialty materials.
The lessons in the book are also appropriate to those who use
materials and for those involved in manufacturing supply-chain
management and industrial design.
Key Features
Instructs the reader on how to select the most effective strategies
to deal with materials supply-chain failures
Discusses technical feasibility, economic viability and the political context
Includes an extensive use of case studies to illustrate key concepts of criticality
Readership
Materials scientists, materials engineers in industry, supply chain managers, government officials
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About the Author
Alexander King
Alex King is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State
University. He earned his doctorate from Oxford University and did his
post-doc work at both Oxford University and MIT. He went on to join the
faculty at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he also
served as the Vice Provost for Graduate Studies (Dean of the Graduate School).
He was the Head of the School of Materials Engineering at Purdue from 1999 to
2007. From 2008 until 2013 he was the Director of DOE's Ames Laboratory and
became the Founding Director of the Critical Materials Institute from 2013
through 2018. Dr. King is a Fellow of the Institute of Mining Minerals and
Materials; ASM International; and the Materials Research Society. He was also
a Visiting Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in 1996 and
a US Department of State Jefferson Science Fellow for 2005-06. He served as
the President of MRS in 2002, Chair of the University Materials Council of
North America from 2006-07, Co-chair of the Gordon Conference on Physical
Metallurgy in 2006, and Chair of the APS Interest Group on Energy Research and
Applications for 2010. Dr. King was named the recipient of the 2019 Acta Materialia
Hollomon Award for Materials and Society. Alex King delivered a TEDx talk on critical
materials in 2013 and was the TMS & ASM Distinguished Lecturer on Materials and
Society in 2017. He is currently a scientific adviser for Harvard's Material
Alchemy (described as "translating science into commercial products that use
sustainable materials") and a member of the Advisory Board of CHiMaD (the Center
for Hierarchical Materials Design, funded by the Department of Commerce, and
led by Northwestern University).
Affiliations and Expertise
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Iowa State University, USA.
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Table of Contents
1: Why are we worried? The rare earth crisis and its impacts.
2: This is not new. A short history of supply-chain failures.
Copper and the end of the Bronze Age
The Venetian monopoly on glass
The wars of the twentieth century
Cobalt (1978)
Molybdenum (1980 and 2004)
Rhenium (2006-2008)
Niobium
Tantalum
Silicon
Lessons learned
3: Assessing the Risks.
Defining and measuring criticality
What criticality is and is not
Comparisons among different assessments
Technological, social and economic factors causing criticality to rise
Tipping points. What takes us from criticality to crisis?
Lessons learned
4: Impacts. What changed when supply crises happened?
Impacts on existing technologies (case studies)
Impacts on emerging technologies (case studies)
Lessons learned
5: Mitigating Criticality, part I. Technology Substitution.
Making do without a material
Costs and trade-offs
Short and long-term solutions
Lessons learned
6: Mitigating Criticality, part II. Material Substitution.
The new challenge of inventing materials on demand
Effective R&D tools and techniques
Building research teams
Materials Genome Initiative
A few successes
Lessons learned
7: Mitigating Criticality, part III. Source Diversification.
How are mines developed?
Conventional mines
Unconventional sources
Co-production
Lessons learned
8: Mitigating Criticality, part IV. Reuse and Recycling.
Urban mines vs. conventional mines
Technological vs. regulatory solutions
Successes and failures
Lessons learned
9: Tactical Responses to Crises and Strategies for Avoiding Them.
Starting preparations sooner
Shortening the R&D timeline
Reducing complexity – lessons from nature.
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