Grain Nucleation and Growth: The Interdependence Theory and Its Application

Ma Qian is an Associate Professor, and his areas of expertise include grain refinement of cast alloys by both chemical and physical means, heterogeneous nucleation, thermodynamics of materials, light alloy design (magnesium, aluminium, and titanium), and near-net shape manufacturing from powder or wire. He has published 5 book chapters, 84 refereed journal papers and 44 refereed conference papers and holds an international patent on grain refinement of magnesium alloys. He is ASM 2006 Henry Marion Howe Medal. Dr. Mark Easton is a Program Manager with the CAST Co-operative Research Centre based at Monash University. His management portfolio includes light metals development related to structural and powertrain applications of metals in automotive industry, property and quality control in continuous casting, and corrosion and surface protection. His research has focused on the development of microstructure and its effect on mechanical, creep and corrosion properties, particularly in aluminium and magnesium based alloys. He has contributed to 2 book chapters, 51 refereed papers and 37 conference papers. Dr. Easton has industrial experience as a Research Engineer at Comalco Research and Technical Services. He is recipient of the ASM 2006 Henry Marion Howe Medal and GKSS Magnesium Research Award. Professor David StJohn is Director of the Centre for Advanced Materials Processing and Manufacturing at the University of Queensland. His areas of expertise include solidification and casting of light alloys; the science of peritectic solidification; the metallurgical factors controlling the development of casting defects; mechanisms of hot tearing of aluminium alloys; and the nucleation and refinement of grains in a range of alloys. He has published 300 papers in journals and conference proceedings with 88 papers on aspects of nucleation and grain refinement. He has achieved an H index of 25 with over 2,000 citations and is recipient of the ASM Henry Marion Howe Medal. StJohn has spent six years in industry and 16 years managing large cooperative research centres.