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  • 1.  new book: Critical Materials by Alex King

    Posted 11-05-2020 11:48
    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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  • 2.  RE: new book: Critical Materials by Alex King

    Posted 11-11-2020 10:14
    Here is a link to a discussion post featuring Materials in Literature - maybe you can add some to your "must read" list.

    Hope you enjoyed this book!


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    Carrie Hawk
    ASM International
    Community Engagement Specialist

    440-338-5497
    carrieh@asminternational.org
    ------------------------------

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