The Grunfeld Memorial Award & Medal is presented in recognition of professional contribution by an individual in early to mid-career, that has had significant influence on the engineering application of components made from any alloys in the metallurgical industries.
Dr Kathy Christofidu is a lecturer in Metallurgy and leads the Modern Alloy Charaterisation Experimentation Manufacture and Evaluation research group (Modern AlChEME). Dr Christofidu said “My research vision is to establish new methodologies for accelerated alloy design to address the sustainability challenges of tomorrow through meaningful integration of manufacturing practices and digital first approaches, developing the digital metallurgy practices of the future.” The activities of her group to date bridge alloy and microstructure design with advanced manufacturing following two key strands namely, a) accelerated methods of alloy development and high throughput testing including design for manufacture and b) advanced diffraction methods for non-destructive alloy evaluation particularly as applied to high performance engineering components.
Dr Christofidou has published 24 papers and 4 patents, including in the high impact journals in her field. These achievements demonstrate the immense quality and relevance of her work. Her collaboration with Rolls-Royce plc sees her working to develop new materials for the next generation of efficient turbines and other applications such as civil aviation jet engines. Her work has enabled improvements in both performance and cost in the manufacturing of alloys. She is a recognised leader within the field of high entropy alloys and her work has helped to improve commercial databases used in computations alloy design. She is also the “Materials Discovery and Prototyping” lead for the UK Royce Institute which evidences the leadership for which she is known for in her discipline.
In addition to her outstanding research activities, Dr Christofidou engages with the broader research community and is held in very high regard amongst her peers. This is demonstrated through her memberships of high profile committees, including the IOM3 Materials Chemistry Committee and her regular invitations to organise prestigious symposia and workshops. She is going to be an excellent ambassador for the IOM3 as a recipient of the Grunfeld Memorial Award and Medal.
Professor Serena Cussen
Head of Department, Materials Science and Engineering