ASM Online Member Community

 View Only
Register for Upcoming Events
Back to discussions
Expand all | Collapse all

What got you into metals/materials

  • 1.  What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 02-26-2023 16:53

    What attracted you to your current field of metals/materials.



    ------------------------------
    Zayna Connor
    ZMC Consulting, Inc.
    Trivoli IL
    (309) 229-6328
    ------------------------------
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 2.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 02-27-2023 07:54

    When I was an undergraduate I was required to take a Material Science course for exposure. I loved that intuition did not hold true for certain aspects of the discipline and I switched my major directly following that class.

    I found that I really enjoyed physical metallurgy.  I enjoy building the story through each process by piecing together mechanical results, metallographic results, and linking those results together with the use of my education to make decisions. There is plenty of material available on what the materials should look like under perfect deformation, or specific strain rates, but when it comes to real world processing you have to read between the lines and make an educated decision using all the tools in your toolbox. 



    ------------------------------
    Jeffrey Tatum
    Product Development Engineer
    Tecomet
    Lansing MI
    15869144715
    ------------------------------

    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 3.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 02-27-2023 11:10
    Zayna and 

    One class in my senior year as a physics major.
    It was on the surfaces of materials/metals and taught
    in another department.  It changed my world.
    I hope that I can do the same for others.....

    kind regards,
    - Jim






    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 4.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 02-27-2023 12:07

    Professor John Wulff's Introduction to Metallurgy freshman elective at MIT. I was originally planning to major in chemical engineering but that course re-directed me.



    ------------------------------
    Thomas Murphy
    Owner/Manager
    CLADIC Consulting,Sikorsky Aircraft
    Milford CT
    ------------------------------

    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 5.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 02-27-2023 13:27
    Thank you for all your responses!  My father worked in a steel mill. I went to work at Caterpillar to be a toolmaker but I started first in the foundry. I like the foundry so much that I went through the four year Foundry apprenticeship. Then after working for a few years, I had an opportunity to go back to school and of course, I picked metallurgical engineering. It is so interesting and fun!



    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 6.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 02-28-2023 01:22

    When I was young, probably in middle school, I observed that all of my plastic toys were crap (except Legos, of course) and my metal and wood toys were much better. That lead me to start observing and thinking about materials. I took a Metallurgy for Machinists and Welders class and a machining class which cemented metals as my choice of specialty.



    ------------------------------
    David Sapiro
    Senior Materials Engineer
    Seattle WA
    dosapiro@gmail.com
    ------------------------------

    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 7.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 02-28-2023 04:37

    When I was a junior in the Politecnico di Torino I was studying Chemical Engineering. My curriculum comprised a course on Applied Chemistry, which illustrated some basic Metallurgy. The teacher was the Head of the Department, a very experienced scientist. He was the one that attracted me to the field.



    ------------------------------
    Donato FIRRAO FASM
    Professor
    Politecnico di Torino
    TORINO
    +393351494032
    Italy
    ------------------------------

    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 8.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 02-28-2023 07:22

    A course on Heat Treatment during my undergraduate. I was awestruck to learn that by just heating and cooling alloys, you can completely change their properties. One course which changed my outlook towards Metallurgy and Materials Engineering!

    The same curiosity led me to leading a Materials Lab equipped with SEM-EDS and Advanced Metallogrpahy at Bekaert India Technical Center.

    Now I am about to finish my PhD in alloy design for high-temperature applications.

    Thanks to the excellent teacher at the Govt. College of Engineering Pune, India.



    ------------------------------
    Sufyan M. Shaikh
    Metallurgical & Materials Engineering
    Indian Institute of Technology Madras
    linkedin.com/in/sufyanshk
    ------------------------------

    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 9.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 03-01-2023 17:45
    It seems a common theme that once exposed to metals/materials, all of us find it fun and interesting. I wonder how many more people would be in this field if they had the sorts of exposures  we have had. 


    Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone



    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 10.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 03-02-2023 09:52
    I became interested in minerals when I was a teen, and became interested in crystals. Then I learned that metals are crystalline and that metallurgists deal with crystals. This seemed too good to be true, and I looked seriously into metallurgy. So, I went to college intending to become a metallurgist and became one. 
    Along the way I thought of going into extractive metallurgy, but that wasn't possible to do where I wanted to do it. I was a mechanical metallurgist, then a physical metallurgist, then a corrosion metallurgist, and back to mechanical metallurgy as I retired. It has been an interesting and rewarding career. 

    --
    John Grubb



    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 11.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 03-01-2023 17:48

    I originally entered Carnegie Mellon University as a math major, and discovered I did not enjoy theoretical math. As a senior in high school, the local ASM chapter hosted a meeting where they invited high school students who excelled in math and science classes from local high schools to the meeting. I was 1 of 2 chosen from my high school - the meeting was interesting. After discovering my dislike for theoretical math, I remembered that ASM meeting and decided to try a metallurgy class in my 2nd freshman semester. I enjoyed it, and switched to what was then titled "Metallurgy and Materials Science" as a major, graduating with a BS in 1974. I've remained in the field ever since in various functions, and continue today as a contract auditor for materials testing labs for PRI's Nadcap program.



    ------------------------------
    Kevin Haffey
    Nadcap MTL Auditor
    Self Employed,Universal Stainless
    Evans City PA
    (412) 629-7367
    ------------------------------

    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 12.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 03-01-2023 18:27

    My brother was majoring in Material Science at Cornell, but he was specializing in polymer science. Loved the idea of studying materials but I did not want to take organic chemistry to to do so. I settled on metallurgy instead before I even went to college and am still practicing 45 years later.



    ------------------------------
    Aaron Tanzer
    Principal Research Engineer
    University of Dayton Research Institute
    Beavercreek OH
    (407) 247-9557
    ------------------------------

    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 13.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 03-06-2023 11:50

    My father was a mechanical engineer but he worked in metallurgy when I was a kid so I got early exposure.
    Then, when I was a second year engineering student, we visited a blast furnace and I was fascinated. The 'Introduction to metallurgy class' in the 3rd year sealed the deal.
    Fun fact: I'm now teaching that same exact class. 



    ------------------------------
    Veronique Vitry
    UMONS
    MONS
    +32.496.89.71.94
    ------------------------------

    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 14.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 03-06-2023 12:47
    That's great, Veronique!  Where do you teach?


    Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone



    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 15.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 03-06-2023 15:29

    At the university of Mons, in Belgium.



    ------------------------------
    Veronique Vitry
    UMONS
    MONS
    +32.496.89.71.94
    ------------------------------

    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo


  • 16.  RE: What got you into metals/materials

    Posted 03-07-2023 11:11

    In college at CMU, I knew that I wanted to be an engineer, but had not yet decided which field.  I took several introductory classes (i.e., Intro to Chemical Engineering, Intro to Electrical Engineering, and Intro to Mechanical Engineering).  In the Mechanical Engineering introductory course, the professor teaching it used a book that introduced metallurgy and materials science topics.  From that, I was interested in the topics and then switched over to the Metallurgy department.  I knew this was the engineering field for me from that point on.



    ------------------------------
    Stephen Fyfitch
    Technical Consultant
    BHI Energy
    Coraopolis PA
    4122189214
    ------------------------------

    Original Message
    IMAT Conference & Expo