Abstract

Major innovative developments in steel processing have occurred in Indiana that have changed the nature of steel production in the United States. Once an industry that primarily shipped iron ore across the Great Lakes to be reduced by carbon in blast furnaces in large integrated steel plants situated in northwest Indiana, the development of the electric furnace, the advent of thin slab casting, and the operation of a “mini-mill” for both long and flat rolled steel products, again in Indiana, radically changed the future of steel processing by allowing recycled steel to be applied to almost all products. This development allowed the United States to lead the world in the recycling of steel. The future of the steel industry must be to radically decrease its reliance on carbon as a reductant and to reduce the amount of carbon used to produce the electricity that is used during steel recycling. The potential and impact of such a future will be discussed in this presentation.

Biography

Alan was President (2015 - 2021) and Provost (2008- 2015) at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Dean of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2005-2008) and Department Head of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (2000-2005). Currently, he is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Materials Engineering at IIT.

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (2014) and the National Academy of Inventors (2015). In 2016 he received the Bessemer Gold Medal from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. He is a Distinguished Member or Fellow of the iron and Steel Society (ISS), the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME), The American Society for Materials (ASM), The American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Iron and Steel Society of Japan (ISIJ). He was also present of both ISS (2000) and AIME (2005).

Hosted by College of Engineering and the School of Materials Engineering.