Dr Andy Watson

Andy studied Metallurgy at the University of Manchester, and inspired by a third year undergraduate project on the determination of the enthalpies of mixing of liquid alloys, went on the gain and MSc and PhD on the experimental and computational thermodynamics on sigma phase containing alloy systems. Enthalpies of formation of solid phases in the Ni-V, Ni-Cr-Si and Ni-Cr-W system were determined by adiabatic calorimetry employing a Dench-type calorimeter, and by direct reaction drop calorimetry using the SETARAM HT1500. Modelling of the binary Ni-V system was carried out using BINGSS, the optimisation software written by Hans-Leo Lukas of MPI Stuttgart.

On leaving Manchester, Andy worked in the flame-spraying industry for a while before joining the University of Sheffield working with Bernard Argent and Tony Bryant. Andy rebuilt a Sale Spherical Adiabatic calorimeter before using the SETARAM HT1000 for the determination of the enthalpies of formation of compounds in III-V and II-VI systems and oxides in the YBCO high-temperature oxide superconducting system, using tin-solution and metaborate solution calorimetry, respectively. The experimental data were then used in assessments of the associated systems which have since been included in the SGTE III-V's database, the SGTE solution database and the YBCO database.

Andy then moved on to the Institute for Materials Research at the University of Leeds, taking the HT1000 from Sheffield and the HT1500 from Manchester with him. At this time, Andy was heavily involved with European COST Actions 531 and MP0602 (acting as vice-chair of the management committees for both) on Lead-Free solders. The HT1500, in particular, was put into good use on studies of a number of systems of interest for lead-free solders, and through the COST Short Term Scientific Mission scheme, Andy and the Department acted as host to a number of scientists from other laboratories throughout Europe who came to use the equipment. Sadly, when Andy left Leeds, the calorimeters were surplus to requirement and were scrapped.

Since leaving Leeds, Andy has been working as a consultant and is a director of Hampton Thermodynamics and member of SGTE (Scientific Group Thermodata Europe). Recipient of the IOM3 Hume-Rothery prize in 2013, Andy has been chair of the Materials Chemistry Committee of the IOM3 for a number of years up to its recent dissolution. He is associate editor of the Calphad Journal and The Journal of Phase Equilibria and Diffusion. He has also worked for nearly 30 years as a member of the MSI Team (MSIT) that is responsible for the compilation of the Ternary Alloys series that is published by MSI in Stuttgart and is now Editor-in-Chief of the MSI Eureka database (http://www.msiport.com/).