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EPMA Powder Metallurgy Thesis Competition

Operated on a yearly basis (biennially prior to 2016), the EPMA PM Thesis Competition is designed to stimulate and encourage young researchers in PM. It is open to any students studying within the EU in two categories - PhD and Masters.

The aim of the competition is to develop interest in and promote powder metallurgy among young scientists at European academic establishments, and to encourage research at under-graduate and post-graduate levels.

It offers financial prizes (sponsored by metals-logo) to the winners who also have the opportunity to present their work to the EPMA conference and receive a plaque from the EPMA President.

For more information and to sumbit an entry to this year's Thesis Competition, please visit the Thesis Competition website (www.epma.com/thesiscompetition).

Previous winners can be seen below:

2022 

PhD category winner

Dr. techn. Lukas Kaserer, BSc. MSc

Laser Powder Bed Fusion of the Refractory Metal Molybdenum Material and Process Development

 

2021 

PhD category winner

Dr Felicity Freeman

Structuring Difference: The Additive Manufacture of Spatially and Functionally Differentiated Microstructures

 

 

Masters category winner

Ing Gerald Wilhelm

Development of a hybrid preheating concept for the additive manufacturing of brittle multi material components

 

2020 

PhD category winner

Dr Miguel de Dios

Synthesis, Processing and Mechanical Characterization of Titanium Carbonitride based cermet through the combination of Colloidal and Powder Metallurgy techniques.

 

 

Masters category winner

Mr Juan Alfonso Naranjo Simarro

Rapid Prototyping Of Metal Parts Based On Fused Filament Fabrication Technology

 

2019: Dr Chu Lun Alex Leung

The winner of the 2019 EPMA Powder Metallurgy Thesis Competition received their prize at the plenary session of the Euro PM2019 Congress which took place in Maastricht, The Netherlands, 13 – 16 October 2019 with over 1100 participants.

The winner in the Doctorate category was Dr Chu Lun Alex Leung of The University of Manchester, United Kingdom, for his thesis "X-ray Imaging of Powder Consolidation During Laser Additive Manufacturing​".

 

 

2018: Dr Thomas Lapauw & Dipl-Ing Kevin Ouda

The winners of the 2018 EPMA Powder Metallurgy Thesis Competition received their prizes at the plenary session of the Euro PM2018 Congress which took place in Bilbao, Spain, 14 – 18 October 2018 with over 1100 participants.

The winner in the Doctorate category was Dr Thomas Lapauw of KU Leuven, for his thesis "Mn+1 AXn Phase-Structured Carbides for Nuclear Applications".

 

The winner in the Masters category was Dipl-Ing Kevin Ouda of TU Wien, for his thesis "Determination of Retained Austenite in Differently Alloyed Steels by Magnetic Measurements".

 

 

2017: Dr Bey Vrancken & Dipl-Ing Silvia Baselli

The winners of the 2017 EPMA Powder Metallurgy Thesis Competition received their prizes at the plenary session of the Euro PM2017 Congress which took place in Milan, Italy, 1 – 5 October 2017 with over 1000 participants.

The winner in the Doctorate category was Dr Bey Vrancken of KU Leuven, for his thesis "Study of Residual Stresses in Selective Laser Melting".

 

The winner in the Masters category was Dipl-Ing Silvia Baselli of University of Trento, for her thesis "Shrinkage Kinetics Model of Uniaxial Cold Compacted Green Iron".

 

 

2016: Dr Elena Bernardo Quejido & Mr Uriel Tradowsky

The winners of the 2016 EPMA Powder Metallurgy Thesis Competition received their prizes at the plenary session of the World PM2016 Congress which took place in Hamburg, Germany, 9 – 13 October 2016 with over 1900 participants.

The winner in the Doctorate/PhD category was Dr Elena Bernardo Quejido of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, for her thesis "Optimization of Liquid Phases for Sintering Low Alloy Steels: Effect on Microstructure and Dimensional Control".

 

The winner in the Diploma/Masters category was Mr Uriel Tradowsky of Technical University of Berlin and the University of Birmingham, for his thesis "Selective Laser Melting of AlSi10Mg: Influence of Post-Processing on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties".

 

 

2014: Dr Annabel Braem & Mr David Lang

The winners of the 2014 EPMA Powder Metallurgy Thesis Competition received their prizes at the plenary session of the Euro PM2014 Congress which took place in Salzburg, Austria, 21 – 24 September 2014 with over 850 attendees.

The winner in the Doctorate/PhD category was Dr Annabel Braem who is studying at KU Leuven, Belgium for her thesis "The Development of bio-functional porous coatings for bone implants".

 

The winner in the Diploma/Masters category was Mr David Lang from the University of Leoben, Austria, for his thesis entitled "Characterization of the precipitation mechanism in the molybdenum based alloy MHC."

 

 

2012: Dr Catalina Elena Jiméne & Bruno José Jordão Marques

The winners of the 2012 EPMA Powder Metallurgy Thesis Competition were honoured at the plenary session of the PM2012 World Congress in Basel, Switzerland with nearly 500 people in attendance.

The winner in the Doctorate category was Dr Catalina Elena Jiménez for her thesis on "Characterisation and modification of powders used to make Al-based metal foams", which was completed at the Institute of Materials Science and Technology, TU Berlin.

 

The Masters winner was Bruno José Jordão Marques from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, for his thesis "Stainless Steel as an alternative binder in WC based composites".

 

Both Doctorate and Masters category winners made a presentation on their theses to the plenary audience and were provided the opportunity to submit an article to the official EPMA journal 'Powder Metallurgy'.

2010: Dr Claas Bierwisch & Miss Ilaria Forno

The winners of this year's EPMA Powder Metallurgy Thesis Competition were honoured at the plenary session of the PM2010 World Congress in Florence with nearly 1000 people in attendance. This biennial competition has, over many years, helped raise awareness of PM and stimulated research amongst young designers and engineers throughout Europe. The prizes were kindly sponsored by Höganäs AB, Sweden.

The winner in the Doctorate category was Dr Claas Bierwisch from the Fraunhofer Institut - IWM in Freiburg, Germany, for his thesis on "Numerical Simulations of Granular Flow and Filling". He received a cheque for €1,000 from EPMA President, Mr Ingo Cremer.

 

A cheque for €750 was awarded to Miss Ilaria Forno, of the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, winner in the Masters' category, for her dissertation on "Influence on atmosphere and cooling rate on properties of sinter-hardened steels".

 

Besides free registration to the World PM2010 Congress, both winners made short presentations on their theses during the Plenary and were also given the opportunity to submit an article to the official EPMA journal, "Powder Metallurgy".

 

More information on the EPMA Thesis Competition can be found on the Thesis Competition website (www.epma.com/thesiscompetition).

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