Research Postgraduate wins award at Materials Processing Institute Symposium

Thomas Kwok, Research Postgraduate in the Department of Materials has won the Best Presentation prize at the 5th Postgraduate Research Symposium.

The Postgraduate Research Symposium on Ferrous Metallurgy is an annual event organised by the Materials Processing Institute and supported by the Armourers & Brasiers’ Company and the Iron & Steel Society of IOM3. 

It provides universities, researchers, and businesses the opportunity to learn about the latest thinking on ferrous metallurgy. This year the event was held at the Armourers and Brasiers Hall.

'Wonderful event for PhD students'

Thomas was awarded the best presentation prize at the Symposium last week with his talk titled: 'A closer look at the TWIP+TRIP mechanism in medium Mn steels'. There were ten participants in total from universities nationwide.

Winning the best presentation was a wholesome way to end my PhD and a great way to honour the invaluable support of my group mates, collaborators and supervisor. Thomas Kwok

Thomas is a final-year Research Postgraduate in the Department of Materials, supervised by Professor David Dye. His research focuses on developing new steels that have better properties yet are cheaper than the current steels. This has involved recognising high Mn containing steels as the ideal type of steel because of its superior mechanical properties and working to minimise the Mn content to meet cost targets.

The group of Professor David Dye have now developed a whole suite of medium Mn containing steels that meet the target mechanical properties at only a fraction of the price. They have also discovered new deformation mechanisms and developed new alloying and processing concepts to maximise the strength and ductility of medium Mn containing steels.

Thomas commented: "The Postgraduate Research Symposium on Ferrous Metallurgy is a wonderful event for PhD students working on steel research to present their work as well as to mingle and make new friends from all over the UK.

Having attended the symposium nearly every year since my first year, I thought I should take the opportunity to present my PhD work now that I’m in my final year.

Winning the best presentation was a wholesome way to end my PhD and a great way to honour the invaluable support my group mates, collaborators, as well as my supervisor Professor David Dye has given me over the years."

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