Archived News from Prof. Li's Group
News: Ravi Kopparthi wins the AWS Graduate Fellowship! - Our PhD candidate Ravi wins the prestigious American Welding Society Graduate Fellowship ($35,000 USD annually for two years) with a research proposal "Bond Formation Mechanism of High-Frequency Electric Resistance Welded X65 Pipeline Steel". Congratulations!
Plenary Speech at AWS Conference in Chicago,
September 12, 2023, Chicago, FABTECH American Welding Society Conference: Prof. Li presented a plenary talk, "Delta-ferrite and Rapidly Solidified Microstructure in Welding and Additive Manufacturing of Martensitic Steels - A Kinetics Analysis of Effect of Cooling Rates".
Thesis Defenses in our Group: Jason Li, PhD Candidate in our group, has defended his thesis in July, 2023; Suvan Dev Choudhury, PhD Candidate in our group, has defended his thesis in August 2023. Congratulations to both of them!
Our paper, "Bond Formation Mechanism for Resistance Welding of X70 Pipeline Steel", published in August 2020 issue of the Welding Journal, has been selected for 2021 W.H. Hobart Memorial Award by American Welding Society, for "best contribution to pipe welding, the structural use of pipe or similar applications".
Our paper, "Solidified
Microstructure of Wear Resistant Fe-Cr-C-B Overlays", published in
Metallurgical & Materials Transactions B, 51B (2020) 1291-1300, has been "personally chosen by the Editors
of Metallurgical and Materials Transactions as having special
significance". Congratulations to Jason, Rangasayee, and Minghao!
News: Li Group Receives the A.F. Davis Silver Medal Award from AWS - November 12, 2019, the American Welding Society selected our paper "Development of Nickel-added, Iron-based Slag-free, Self-shielded Metal-Cored Wire" printed in the September 2018 issue of the Welding Journal for the A.F. Davis Silver Medal Award. The award recognizes the "best contributions to the progress of welding in the category of maintenance and surfacing". The American Welding Society is world's largest and important organization on welding and associated technologies.
AWS President (2019) Dr. Tom Lienert (1st from left) and Dr. Suresh Babu of University of Tennessee (4th from left) presented the medals to Dr. D. Liu (2nd from left) and Dr. L. Li (3rd from left) at the Awards Luncheon at McCormick Place, Chicago, November 12, 2019. Other co-authors were not able to come to Chicago due to the snow storm that canceled many flights. (Photo credit to Dr. Jason Wang of ORNL.)
April 3, 2019. We received news today that our
paper "Cascading phase transformations in high carbon steel resulting in the formation of inverse bainite: An atomic scale investigation" is published in the
Scientific Reports, a Nature journal. With Dr. Kannan as the lead author and co-authors including Y. Wang and J. Poplawski from Oak Ridge National Labs and S. Babu from University of Tennessee, the paper reports a latest development in physical metallurgy of steels.
Rangasayee Kannan Defended His PhD Thesis. December 18, 2018, Rangasayee Kannan
successfully defended his PhD thesis "Mechanism
of Inverse Bainitic Transformation in High
Carbon Steels". The examination committee,
chaired by Prof. J. Luo, consisted of Prof. Suresh
Babu, Dr. Xinjin Cao, Prof. Tom Etsell, Prof. Vinay
Prasad, and Prof. L. Li.
Congratulations to Dr. Kannan!
(Nov. 2018) The 2018 AWS Warren F. Savage Memorial
Award: Our paper, "Microstructural Analysis of the
As-Welded Heat-Affected Zone of a Grade 91 Steel
Heavy Section Weldment", printed in the June 2017
issue of the Welding Journal, was selected for
this prestigious award in welding metallurgy. "This award recognizes the paper
published in the Welding Journal during the
previous calendar year that best represents
innovative research resulting in a better
understanding of the metallurgical principles
related to welding."
>(Nov. 2018) The 2018 AWS McKay-Helm Award: Our paper, "Fiber Laser Welding of
WC-Co and Carbon Steel Dissimilar Materials",
printed in the January 2017 issue of the Welding
Journal, was selected for the award for best paper
in surfacing welding metals. "This award is
presented for the best contribution to the
advancement of knowledge of low-alloy steel,
stainless steel or surfacing welding metals,
involving the use, development or testing of these
materials, as represented by articles published in
the Welding Journal during the previous calendar
year."
(Spring 2018) Jason Wang successfully defended his
PhD dissertation before Christmas of
2018. Congratulations Dr. Wang!
(November, 2018) Our paper (Wang, Y., Li, L., 2016,
Microstructure Evolution of Fine-Grained Heat-Affected Zone in Type
IV Failure of Grade 91 Welds, Welding Journal, 95(1), 27-36s)
has been selected by American Welding Society for the 2017
W.H. Hobart Memorial Award for best paper on pipe welding. The award
ceremony was in Chicago FABTECH Convention in November
2017.
During the CanWeld 2016 Conference in Edmonton, October 4-5. 2016,
three members of our group made technical presentations. Jason Wang
presented a paper on P91 welds.
Ragasayee Kannan presented a paper on bainite transformation
in steels.
Chris DiGiovanni presented a paper on brittle fracture during
galvanization of welded steel trusses.
(September 1, 2015) Chris Di Giovanni, a 2015 graduate of the
Welding and Joining Specialization, Mechanical Engineering, University
of Waterloo, joined our group as an MSc. student. Chris has since
applied for and been awarded with a MITACS graduate fellowship, with
which he will study welded trusses.
(January, 2015) Rangasayee Kannan, a recent graduate of
metallurgical and materials engineering from National Institute of
Technology - Trichy, India, joined our group as a
Ph.D. student.
(November, 2014) A paper published last year, "Effect of Post-weld
Heat Treatment on Toughness of Heat-affect Zone of Grade 91 Steel"
[Welding Journal 92(3), 80s-86s], has won the W.H. Hobart Memorial
Award from the AWS, for the best paper on pipeline welding and
pipeline technology published in the Welding Journal in the previous
year.
(July 1, 2014) Dr. Li has been elected Fellow of ASM
International, for his "contributions to our understanding of the
welding metallurgy of steels and superalloys and of the fundamental
mechanisms that explain ultrasonic consolidation in metal-matrix
composites." Here is a photo showing him
accepting the fellow certificate from Prof. Ravindran, President of
ASM, during the ceremony in Pittsburgh, Oct 2014.
(March 1, 2014) Receiving a fellowship from the Chinese
Scholarship Council, Yiyu (Jason) Wang of Wuhan University of
Technology joined Dr. Li's group as an exchange
Ph.D. student.
(November 1, 2013) Dr. Li moved to University of Alberta to take
up a Professor of Materials Engineering position in the Department
of Chemical and Materials Engineering. Edmonton, here I come!
(November 21-24, 2012) Invited by Prof. Janaki Ram of IIT Madras,
Dr. Li visited the Welding and Materials Joining Lab at Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai, India. While there,
Dr. Li made invited presentations to welding researchers and graduate
students at the Welding Research Today national workshop hosted by IIT
Madras. Further collaboration on exchange of student researchers and
projects between our two labs has been discussed.
(August, 2012) The group welcomes a new PhD candidate, Zhifen
Wang. She is a recent graduate of Materials Engineering at Wuhan
University.
(July 12, 2012) Dr. Li made an invited presentation,
"Pulsed-Laser Deposition of a Directionally Solidified Superalloy", at
the IIW (International Institute of Welding) Annual Conference in
Dever, CO.
(July 6, 2012) Prof. Veli Kujanpaa of VTT Finland visited our lab
and gave a lecture on laser processing of nuclear
structures.
(June, 2012) Research Assistant Jess Housekeeper has been awarded
the Department of Energy NEUP Scholarship.
(April, 2012) Dr. Pei-Quan Xu of Shanghai
University of Engineering Sciences joined our group as a post-doctoral
senior visiting scholar.
(Summer, 2011) One new graduate student
recently joined the group as research assistant. Jacob Walker becomes
an M.S. Plan A candidate.
(Summer, 2010) Two new graduate students
recently joined the group as research assistants. Ben Griffith and
Bishal Silwal are M.S. Plan A and PhD candidate,
respectively.
(June 1, 2009) Prof. Li starts visiting VTT,
The Technical Research Center of Finland, as a Visiting
Professor. This year-long visit is part of his sabbatical awarded by
Utah State University.
(October 6-9, 2008) Representing the group,
Andrew Deceuster went to the American Welding Society's annual
conference and exhibition in Las Vegas. During the same week, Dr. Li
went to the Materials Science &
Technology 2008 Conference and Exhibition in Pittsburgh. Four
papers from our group were presented in the Joining of Advanced and
Specialty Materials 10th Symposium (JASM X).
(April 24, 2008) Sam Zhang, PhD graduate student in our group,
has been awarded with
the School
of Graduate Studies Dissertation Fellowship. This fellowship has
an award of $5,000 additional support for him to finish his
dissertation.
(April 21, 2008) Andrew Deceuster, a PhD graduate student in our
group, has been awarded with the AWS
Graduate Fellowship. The fellowship has an award of $25,000 per
year for up to 3 years. This award is a national recognition of the
quality of our graduate program in materials joining.
(September 16, 2007) Three papers by our group were presented at
the Joining of Advanced and Specialty Materials Symposium, MS&T'07, in
Detroit. During the conference, Dr. Li was also elected Chair of
Critical Joining Technologies Committee for ASM
International.
(August 1, 2007) Paul Wilson joined our group as an M.S. research
graduate student. Paul graduated from the MAE program at USU with a BS
degree in 2006, when he started his M.S. program.
(June 25, 2007) Andrew Deceusterhas been
accepted to Dr. Li's research group as new PhD graduate research
assistant. Andrew is finishing up his M.S. thesis with Dr. Li, and
will be studying for a PhD in biological engineering while working on
laser materials processing for biological applications.
(January 27, 2007) Mr. Michael Powers of GE Energy visited our Lab
and expressed interest for future collaboration.
(November 1, 2006) Dr. Li received the Adams Memorial Award from
The American Welding Society. The award is given annually to a
university professor anywhere in the world who has demonstrated
excellence in teaching and research in welding and materials
joining. This award was named after Dr. Comfort A. Adams, the first
president of the American Welding Society and an MIT
professor.
(October 28, 2006) Dr. Manas Mahapatra came to our group as a
postdoc researcher. Manas just finished his PhD from Indian Institute
of Technology by working on numerical modeling of thermal-mechanical
fields during arc welding of steels.
(October 23-34, 2006) Dr. Li hosted the Welding Research Council
2006 Fall Meeting at Utah State University. Council members visited
the Materials Joining Lab and the SDL. Mr. Kei Osawa and Dr. Li reported
the progress made in the WRC funded projects.
(Auguest 20, 2006) Jim Harris has joined the group as an
M.S. student. He will be conducting research related with the Utah
Center of Excellence in Thermal Management, of which Dr. Li is a
co-PI.
(June 6, 2006) SetPoint
Inc. donated a HAAS HL54P Nd:YAG laser system to our Lab. This
system comes with a computer-controlled motion and vedio monitoring
system. This laser will strengthen our capabilities in micro-scale
materials processing.
(May 1, 2006) Mr. Andrew Deceuster joined our group as an
M.S. graduate research assistant. Andrew just graduated from Weber
State University with a B.S. degree in
Manufacturing/Welding.
(March 1, 2006) The Winter 2005-2006 issue of Gleeble Newsletter
published by Dynamic Systems
Inc. has a Gleeble Application Story on Dr. Li's group. Here is
the link
to the article.
(Jan. 10, 2006) Mr. Chunbo Zhang, a doctoral graduate student from
Shanghai Jiaotong University, has joined our research group as a PhD
candidate. He will be working on modeling and simulation of ultrasonic
consolidation of composite materials.
(Dec. 12, 2005) Two senior researchers joined our
group. Prof. Bingquan Chen of Wuhan University of Technology will
spend 6 months in our Lab for collaborative research. Dr. Xuejun Zhu,
who recently finished his degree from Nanyang Technical University in
Singapore, became a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Li's
group.
(Sep. 27, 2005) Dr. Li presented two papers from our group at the
Materials Science & Technology 2005 conference in Pittsburgh. He
also served as the session chair for the Solid-State Joining
Session at the conference.
(May 30, 2005) The Spring 2005 issue of College of Engineering
Journal has a feature article highlighting Dr. Li's research. Here is
the article in pdf format.
(Feb. 25, 2005) Our Gleeble 1500D thermo-mechanical simulation
system has been installed by Mr. David Jacon, systems engineer from
DSI. The entire system performed well, has met its specifications, and
is ready for use.
(Feb. 2, 2005) We are pleased to announce that Dr. Zhiyong Liu,
associate professor at National Key Laboratory of Materials Physics at
Zhengzhou University, Henan, China, has joined our group as a senior
visiting researcher.
(Feb. 1, 2005) Three papers from our group have been accepted
by the following conferences this year: Trends in Welding Research
2005; Heat Transfer Conference 2005; ASEE Annual Conference
2005.
(Nov. 30, 2004) The group welcomed an undergraduate assistant
who has recently joined our research Lab. Jared Eavenson, a senior
MAE student, has been working on modeling of cold bonding of gold
interfaces.
(Oct 5, 2004) Through a special arrangement between USU and
Solidica, Inc., the manufacturing program at USU will acquire a
Solidica ForMation(TM) ultrasonic consolidation machine. This
equipment will greatly enhance our research ability in metal-matrix
composites and smart structures.
(Sep 24, 2004) A research project funded by two biomedical
companies has started in our lab. Laser deposition of titanium on
Co-Cr-Mo alloy will be studied through a joint effort from
Dr. Stucker's and Dr. Li's groups.
(July 1, 2004) The Space Dynamics Lab (SDL) subcontracted to
Dr. Li a research project to study the cold bonding of gold-gold
interface for a space structure. The project was awarded to SDL by
NASA. The project will involve modeling and calculations of local
yielding and pressure-driven diffusion at the gold contact
interface. Experimental verification using the Gleeble is also planned
as part of the study.
(May 20-21, 2004) The High Alloys Committee of the Welding
Research Council held the 2004 Spring meeting at Utah State
University. Dr. Li hosted this meeting and made a progress report on
the superalloy project. The council members were impressed with our
research facilities while visiting our Materials Processing and
Testing Lab and USU's Space Dynamics
Lab.
(April 14, 2004) The ASM International will host an annual
conference in "Joining of Advanced and Specialty Materials" in
Columbus, Ohio, in October, 2004. Dr. Li serves as the chair for
organizing and presiding the "Fusion Welding" Session for the
event. Our group also has two papers accepted for the
conference. Research assistants Kevin Orme and Michael Harrison
prepared abstracts for the submissions.
(April 8, 2004) Dr. Li participated the annual American Welding
Society conference in Chicago. Our group had contributed two papers to
the conference.
(March 31, 2004) The National Science Foundation has awarded USU a
two-year project on undergraduate nanomaterials eduction. Dr. Li is a
Co-PI in this university-wide effort. He will be responsible to
develop "Materials Today" course for the freshman class and
"Nanomaterials" for junior and senior classes.
(Feb. 19, 2004) A project kick-off meeting was held in our Lab for
an Army/Triton Systems sponsored project on GMA welding of Ti
alloys. Program managers from Triton toured our Lab and related
facilities.
(Jan. 16, 2004) Kevin Orme, graduate research assistant, submitted
a poster to the American Welding Society's 2004 annual (85th)
convention in Chicago. His paper, "Effect of Weld Zone Chemical
Composition on Structural Properties of Al-7075 Weldments", was
accepted. Congratulations, Kevin!
(Jan. 15, 2004) Today at Raddison Hotel, Salt Lake City, Dr. Li
gave an invited presentation to the Joint Meeting of ASM Utah Chapter
and AWS Utah Chapter. The topic of his talk was "Microstructural
Analysis of Laser Repaired Directionally Solidified Superalloy
GTD-111".
(Dec. 5, 2003) The Materials Testing Lab acquired a Motoman K10
Robot and a digital X-ray NDE system. Both equipment was donated by
Autoliv company.
(Nov. 21, 2003) Dr. Li participated the Welding Research Council
fall meeting in Cleveland, Ohio. The meeting was hosted by Dr. Damian
Kotecki of Lincoln Electric Company. Dr. Li made two well-received
progress reports to the committee during the meeting on the project
Michael Harrison has been working on recently.
(Nov. 20, 2003) Dr. Li received a hardcopy of the WRC Bulletin
#480 "Effects of Phosphorus and Sulfur on Susceptibility to Weld Hot
Cracking in Austenitic Stainless Steels", which was co-authored by
Dr. Li and Dr. Messler. The Bulletin was published in April 2003 (ISBN
No. 1-58145-487-2) by the New York based Welding Research Council.
(Nov. 2, 2003) Dr. Li has been appointed to the ASM Joining
Critical Technologies Committee as a member. He also serves on two
other national committees: the AWS B4 and the WRC High Alloys.
(Oct. 30, 2003) Mr. Andrew Wilson, a USU welding undergraduate,
has been admitted to the ITE/Welding M.S. program. He is an excellent
addition to our group. He has already started working on the aluminum
project.
(Oct. 28, 2003) A graduate RA is available for a student to
work toward a Ph.D. degree in Manufacturing Engineering. The student
is expected to conduct research in materials joining using latest
laser technology.
(Oct. 15, 2003, Pittsburgh, PA)
Dr. Li participated the annual ASM International's Materials
Solutions Conference. He made two presentations there: "Effect of
purge gas oxygen content on Type 304 stainless tube", and "Failure
analysis of welded aluminum 7075".
Dr. Leijun Li, Professor
Department of Chemical & Materials
Engineering, University of Alberta
