PLENARY SPEAKERS
Plenary speakers
Alain Karma
Northeastern University, USA
Alain Karma is a Distinguished Professor of Physics at Northeastern University. He earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1985, followed by a Weingart postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech. Renowned for his groundbreaking contributions to phase-field methods, his work spans alloy solidification, crack propagation, and cardiac arrhythmias. Prof. Karma is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and has received numerous accolades, including the TMS Bruce Chalmers Award and the Institute of Materials’ John Hunt Medal. His research combines computational modeling with fundamental insights into interface dynamics in materials and biological systems.
Christoph Beckermann
University of Iowa, USA
Christoph Beckermann is a University of Iowa Foundation Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University in 1984 and 1987, respectively. A pioneer in modeling transport phenomena and microstructure formation in solidification, he has authored over 300 publications, with more than 20,000 citations. His computational models are widely used in commercial casting simulation software. Prof. Beckermann is a Fellow of ASME, an honorary life member of TMS, and a recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the TMS Bruce Chalmers Award and ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award.
Ulrike Hecht
Access e.V., Germany
Ulrike Hecht leads the Materials Development Group at Access e.V., specializing in alloy development and materials characterization across processes such as directional solidification and additive manufacturing. A global expert in eutectic solidification, intermetallics, and high-entropy alloys, her work integrates thermodynamic modeling, microstructure analysis, and advanced material testing. Her group’s expertise includes in-situ composites, MAX phases, and powder-based additive manufacturing, with a focus on small-scale material development. Dr. Hecht’s innovative research continues to advance the understanding and application of complex material systems.
Suzana G. Fries
Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
Suzana G. Fries is a senior scientist dedicated to combining experimental and first-principles data for sustainable alloy design. She earned her doctorate from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) in 1985 and started her European career in 1989 at the Max-Planck Institute in Stuttgart. She retired in 2019 after 10 years in ICAMS, Ruhr University Bochum, where she is a guest researcher, and she also currently works with young scientists at the German Aerospace Center, DLR. She has contributed to numerous European research initiatives and co-authored the book Computational Thermodynamics–CALPHAD Method. A recipient of the Kroll Medal and Hume Rothery Prize, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from KTH, Stockholm, in 2022. Suzana is an advocate for open-source codes like OpenCalphad to promote education and accessibility in computational thermodynamics.
Abhik Choudhury
Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India
Abhik Choudhury is an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, and a dual B.Tech/M.Tech degree from IIT Madras. His research focuses on solidification, phase transformations, additive manufacturing, and self-organizing systems, using experimental and computational techniques such as phase-field modeling. Prof. Choudhury’s awards include the INSA Young Scientist Award (2019) and the Young Metallurgist of the Year Award (2018). His group’s work has yielded significant insights into eutectic growth, additive manufacturing, and the process-structure-property relationships of complex material systems.
Teresa Pérez-Prado
IMDEA Materials, Spain
Teresa Pérez-Prado heads since 2008 the Sustainable Metallurgy group at IMDEA Materials Institute. She was Division Leader between 2014 and 2017 and Deputy Director between 2017 and 2021. From 2018 to 2022 she was Manager of the programme on Structural Materials at the Spanish National Science Foundation. Dr. Pérez-Prado got a PhD in Physics at the Complutense University in Madrid in 1998 and an MBA at INSEAD, France, in 2008. After a 2 year postdoctoral stay at the University of California in San Diego, USA, she joined the National Center for Metals Research (Madrid, Spain) in 2001, where she was granted a Tenured Scientist position in 2004. She currently is a member of the Scientific Council of several international institutions including the NOMATEN Center of Excellence (Poland, 2018-2023), the IRT Jules Verne (France), the Henry Royce Institute (UK), and the European Space Agency (2018-2024). She has published more than 150 papers (h51, 9700 citations) in the field of physical metallurgy and advanced manufacturing..