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MOLTEN Conference 2024

Conference Speakers

Meet our Plenary and Keynote Speakers

Conference Speakers

Meet our Plenary and Keynote Speakers

Plenary Speakers

Prof. Evgueni Jak

Professor in Pyrometallurgy, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Queensland

Plenary: University research on molten slags, matte, speiss and metal systems for high temperature processing – challenges, opportunities and solutions

Dr. Daniel Lindberg

Associate Professor (Thermodynamics of Metallurgical Processes), Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Aalto University, School of Chemical Engineering

Plenary: Challenges facing non-ferrous metal production

Dr. Stanko Nikolic MAusIMM

Manager – Hydrometallurgy and Pyrometallurgy, Glencore Technology

Plenary: Fusion of molten phase R&D into the metallurgical industry to drive circularity

Prof. Joohyun Park

Professor of Metallurgy, Hanyang University

Plenary: Physicochemical properties of steelmaking slags for the mitigation of CO2 emissions in steel sector

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Keynote Speakers

Prof. Geoffrey Brooks

 Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Keynote: Recent Advances in Understanding Phosphorous in Oxygen Steelmaking  
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Prof. Brooks is a Professor in the School of Engineering. Since completing his PhD in 1994, Professor Brooks has been an Senior Lecturer at the University of Wollongong (1993-2000), an Associate Professor at McMaster University (2000-2004), a Senior Princpal Research Scientist at CSIRO (2004-2006) and a Professor at Swinburne since 2006. Since joining Swinburne, Professor Brooks has been the Associate Dean of Research, Head of Mathematics at Swinburne and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Future Manufacturing). He currenty co-ordinates research for Extra Terrestrial processing at the University and a Program Leader in the ARC Steel Innovation Hub. He has also been active in recent years working with Physicists on Dark Matter detection research. Professor Brooks has published over 250 papers on fundamental aspects of steelmaking, aluminium production and materials processing in general. He has won significant international awards from the TMS, AIST, ASM and IOM3 for his contribution to metallurgical processing. Professor Brooks is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (UK).

Dr. Jiang (Jeff) Chen

University of Queensland, PYROSEARCH, Australia

Keynote: Chemical- and micro-analytical techniques for molten slags, mattes, speisses and alloys
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Jeff is a Theme Leader Analytical Methods at the School of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Architecture & Information Technology., University of Queensland. He is an expert in the fields of Pyrometallurgy, Extractive metallurgy, Mineral processing, Processing Mineralogy, Microanalysis, EPMA, Microscopy, LA-ICP-MS, Materials Characterisation, Precious metals. He has been a co-author on a number of publications as well as the recipient of a number of grants.

Prof. In Ho Jung

Seoul National University, South Korea  

Keynote: Pyrometallurgical Process Simulations using CALPHAD Thermodynamic Databases  
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Prof. Jung is a world-renowned expert in chemical metallurgy and thermodynamic database development. After working at McGill University, Canada as an assistant and associate professor for 10 years, he is currently a professor at Seoul National University, South Korea. He is a co-developer of FactSage thermodynamic software, and academic member of FIRE (Federation of International Refractory Research and Education). Since 2009, Prof. Jung has led the “FactSage Steelmaking Consortium Project” to develop thermodynamic databases and process simulation models for steelmaking industry, sponsored by 13 companies around the world. He has authored and co-authored 9 book chapters, 20 patents and more than 260 journal papers, and 130 conference proceeding papers. He has received many prestigious awards including John F. Elliott lectureship award from Association of Iron and Steel Technology (AIST) in 2022.

Prof. Lev Medovar

Paton Welding Institute (PWI) & China First Heavy Industries (CFHI), China  

Keynote: State of the art of the Electroslag Refining and challenges of ingot cleanness control
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Prof. Medovar was educated at Kyiv Polytechnical Institute in 1979 and since that time till now with the National Academy of Science of Ukraine. Primary R&D interest focused on control of steel and alloys control solidification with inner and outer crystallizers, particularly at ESR. Author and co-author of about 400 technical articles and owns about 50 patents in the various field of metallurgy

Dr. Stephan Petersen

GTT Technologies, Germany

Keynote: Process modeling and high throughput thermochemical calculations using ChemApp for Python  
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Dr. Petersen graduated in Materials Science at the RWTH Aachen in 1989. He subsequently joined the institute of Solid State Physics at Research Centre, Jülich, where he worked on high pressure solution growth and defect thermochemistry of gallium-arsenide. This formed the basis for his Ph.D. degree, which he received in 1994. He joined GTT-Technologies in 1992.

Dr P. Chris Pistorius

Carnegie Mellon University, USA  

Keynote: Slag-steel reactions in the refining of Advanced High Strength Steel
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Petrus Christiaan (Chris) Pistorius is POSCO Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Iron and Steelmaking Research in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on pyrometallurgy and solidification. Previously he was an associate professor (1991-1996) and professor (1997-2008) in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, University of Pretoria, South Africa, and served as the head of that department from May 2002 to June 2008. Chris has a Master's degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Pretoria, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Prof. Ramana Reddy

University of Alabama, United States

Keynote: Sulfur Distribution in Secondary Steelmaking Slags  
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Dr. Reddy is an ACIPCO endowed professor, department of metallurgical and materials engineering, The University of Alabama. He served as the Head of the department and associate director of the Green Manufacturing Center, Professor Reddy has been teaching and research experience in the field of materials engineering, particularly in the areas of materials manufacturing, extraction, thermodynamics, energy materials, and thermal energy storage. He has published over 440 papers and 27 books, including an undergraduate textbook on thermodynamics. As a department head, he has implemented educational programs for recruiting minority students. He has supervised 116 Ph.D. & M.S. graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. He is the recipient of 5 patents. He has carried out several projects and received funding for research projects from various federal and private organizations (NSF, DOE, DOD, and Industry). He has received several significant professional recognition and awards: SEC Faculty Achievement Award, AIME Mineral Industry Education Award, Burnum Distinguished Faculty Award. He is a distinguished member (Fellow) of SME, a Fellow of ASM International and Fellow of TMS. He was honored with the named symposium and publication of the book, Professor Ramana Reddy Honorary symposium.

Dr. Maksym Shevchenko

University of Queendland, Australia 

Keynote: Advancement in experimental methodologies to produce phase equilibria and thermodynamic data in multicomponent systems
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Maksym is the Theme leader in Experimental and Thermodynamic Optimisation at the PyroSearch Pyrometallurgy Innovation Centre, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland. He has a Master of Sciences in Chemistry with Honours from the Kiev National Taras Shevchenko University in Ukraine, and a PhD from The University of Queensland. He has been a Research Fellow at UQ since 2019 and has co-authord over 100 papers with over 80 of these presented in over 30 conferences. Specialising in experimental liquidus studies of binary, ternary and multicomponent systems within the PbO-ZnO-FeO-Fe2O3-Cu2O-CaO-SiO2 system: high-temperature equilibration, sample preparation, electron probe microanalysis, improvement of experimental and analytical techniques; thermodynamic modelling: critical analysis of literature data, development of new efficient techniques for accurate thermodynamic optimisation of multicomponent systems.

Dr. Denis Shishin

University Queensland, Australia

Keynote: Challenges and limitations in development of large thermodynamic database for multiple molten phases using Modified Quasichemical Formalism
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Dr. Shishin coordinates the development of large self-consistent thermodynamic database for non-ferrous pyrometallurgical applications. He also leads professional education activities with companies-sponsors of Pyrometallurgy Innovation Centre (PYROSEARCH), founded by Prof. Peter Hayes and Prof. Evgueni Jak. The research methodology relies on close integration of literature data analysis, high-temperature equilibration experimental work conducted in-house by the PYROSEARCH team, and CALPHAD-style thermodynamic modelling of sub-systems of the targeted large chemical system. The chemical system of interest has been continuously expanded since Dr. Shishin joined the group: Cu-Fe-O-S-Si-(2014)-Ca-Al-Mg-(2015)-Pb-Zn-As-Sb-Bi-Sn-Ag-Au-(2017)-Cr-(2019)-Ni-Co-(2020)-Na-(2023). Dr. Shishin earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Chemistry from the Moscow State University, and PhD in Metallurgical Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada. During the PhD studies he collaborated with the creators of FactSage software, Prof. Arthur Pelton and Prof. Christopher Bale.

Assoc. Prof. Masanori Suzuki

Osaka University, Japan 

Keynote: Ionic Coordination Analysis of Relaxed Surface for Modelling Surface Tension of Molten Slag  
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A/Prof Suzuki acquainted doctoral degree of engineering in Osaka University in March 2010. Until March 2011, he was engaged in postdoctoral research fellow in University of Queensland, Australia. His research theme there was on the predicting model of viscosity of molten multi-component slag. Then, he became an assistant professor in April 2011, and changed to his position to an associate professor in August 2016, in Division of Materials Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Japan. He mainly performs the combined studies of the microscopic structure analysis and physical property evaluation to qualify interfacial phenomena and properties of high temperature melts related to metallurgical processes.

Prof. Merete Tangsted

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway

Keynote: Reducing CO2 emissions from the ferro-alloy and silicon production
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Merete was educated at NTH in 1989 and was also awarded her PhD at this institution. She worked in Elkem and Eramet in the period of 1990-2004 with production of ferromanganese alloys. Since 2004 she has been a professor at NTNU and her main fields are ferralloy production, silicon production and solar grade silicon processes.

Prof. Baijun Yan

University of Science and Technology Beijing, China

Keynote:  Phase diagram of V2O3-FetO-SiO2-CaO(15 mass%) system at 1623 K  
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Professor, Department of Physical Chemistry of Metallurgy, School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB). Working Experience:2005-2008 Lecture, USTB; 2008-2013 Associate Professor, USTB; 2013-now Professor, USTB. Main research fields: 1) Thermodynamics of metallurgical melts, Phase diagram and phase equilibria of slags containing transition metal oxides; 2) New methods and processes for extraction of vanadium, titanium and chromium from the primary and the second resource.

Dr Johan Zietsman

Ex Mente Technologies, South Africa  

Keynote: Efficient material descriptions for modelling high-temperature processes  
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Dr Zietsman has more than 25 years of extractive metallurgy experience, both in industry and academia, as well as software engineering related to extractive metallurgy. He is the founder and CEO of Ex Mente Technologies, a pyrometallurgy consulting and systems development company. In line with his research and development interests, he has an honorary appointment at the University of Pretoria, as Glencore Chair in Pyrometallurgical Modelling, where he guides Master's and Ph.D. students. His interests in extractive metallurgy include pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes, thermochemistry, computational modelling, slag freeze linings, and new process technology development. In software engineering, he is involved in design and development of information systems, and software for process modelling, financial modelling, operational enhancement, and advanced process control. He has a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering from the University of Pretoria, and has published several papers at peer-reviewed conferences and refereed journals.

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