MATERIALS AUSTRALIA

Materials Australia Awards Professor Ma Qian
their Highest Honour: the Silver Medal
Source: Sally WoodMaterials Australia is pleased toannounce that Professor Ma Qian
has been awarded the institute’s
prestigious Silver Medal..
The Materials Australia Silver Medal ispresented for outstanding contributions
to the advancement of materials scienceand engineering through management,teaching, innovation, development orresearch.
According to Materials Australia
President, Dr Roger Lumley, CMatP,“Over the course of his career, Professor
Ma Qian has devoted his life to the studyof materials. He has made significant
contributions in the fields of physicalmetallurgy, additive manufacturing,solidification processing, powder
metallurgy, metallic biomaterials andthermodynamics of materials.”“Professor Qian’s research has mademajor contributions to industry,
impacting on manufacturing processes
such as casting, powder sintering,
metal injection moulding and additivemanufacturing. He is a most deserving
recipient of Materials Australia’s highest
honour: the Silver Medal.”“Materials Australia would like tocongratulate Professor Qian on
his outstanding achievements andacknowledge him as a worthy winnerof the 2022 Materials Australia SilverMedal,” said Dr Lumley.

Innovative ResearchWith a career that spans over 40 years,
Professor Ma Qian is a Distinguished
Professor of the School of Engineering
at the Royal Melbourne Instituteof Technology (RMIT University) inMelbourne. He joined RMIT University
in 2013, having been the Reader inMaterials Engineering, in the School ofMechanical and Mining Engineering at
The University of Queensland. Prior tothis, he held various academic positions,including at Portsmouth Universityand Brunel University in the United
Kingdom, the National Universityof Singapore, Kyushu Institute ofTechnology in Japan, and TsinghuaUniversity in China.
WWW.MATERIALSAUSTRALIA.COM.AUProfessor Qian began his research at
the CAST Cooperative Research Centre(CRC) on aluminium wrought alloys
for Comalco before moving onto thedevelopment of a superior Magnesium
Zirconium (Mg-Zr) grain refining masteralloy for Australian Magnesium. The
resulting master alloy was patented,and Professor Qian spent time in theUSA optimising the consumption ofZirconium and the performance of theprocess of grain refining commercialcastings. The master alloy is currently
available from Magontec, and isconsidered to be the best performing
master alloy in terms of effectivenessand cost.
Along with his team, Professor Qian has
also recently developed an ultrasoundassisted metal 3D printing process
which could be applied to improvethe mechanical strength of titanium
alloy 3D printing. The printing of 3D
metal is widely used in aerospace andbiomechanical applications. However,it was determined that the use ofultrasound addressed the long-lasting
challenges in fusion-based metal 3D
printing. It is hoped that this could
eventually become a commercially
useful process for 3D printing of
small metal parts. The release of thisresearch saw an audience reach of 146
million people within three weeks ofpublication.
More recently, Professor Qian andhis team have developed a robust
bulk micro-nano hierarchical coppermaterial possessing exceptional
bactericidal efficacy. This new copper
surface can eliminate golden staph intwo minutes—120 times faster than anormal copper surface. The audience
reach within three weeks of thepublication of this work through a RMIT
news release was 276 million.

Conferences and Publications
Alongside his research fellows, PhD
students and collaborators, Professor
Qian has published 291 peer- reviewed
journal articles and four Elsevier books
on titanium alloys, including Titanium
Powder Metallurgy: Science, Technology
BACK TO CONTENTSand Applications, Light Alloys, Titanium
in Medical and Dental Applications, andTitanium for Consumer Applications.
Professor Qian has received nineresearch awards including the 2006
American Society for Metals (ASM)
Henry Howe Marion Medal, the2003 TMS Light Metals Magnesium
Technology Award, the inaugural 2003
Australian CAST-CRC Industry Partners
Award, and the 2019 RMIT Engineering
Executive Dean's Research ExcellenceAward - Level E (professorial level).
Professor Qian also serves as anAssociate, Advisory and Series Editor
for a number of well-respected journals
and publications including Acta
Materialia, Scripta Materialia, and Elsevier
Additive Manufacturing Book Series.
Professor Qian holds a Bachelor ofEngineering, a Master of Science, anda Doctorate of Engineering in Foundry
Metallurgy, as well as a Postgraduate
Certificate in Higher Education. He isalso an elected Fellow of the American
Society for Metals International (FASM),
the World's foremost professionalsociety for materials scientists,engineers and technicians.
Materials Australia would like tocongratulate Professor Qian on
his outstanding achievements andacknowledge him as a worthy winnerof the 2022 Materials Australia SilverMedal.
DECEMBER 2022 | 17