Hatfield Memorial Lecture
The Hatfield Memorial Lecture is an annual event hosted by the School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield. It features presentations from noted academics and industrialists on topics as diverse as space exploration and biomaterials.
What is the Hatfield Memorial lecture?
On 22nd August 1944, the University of Sheffield agreed to be the Trustees of a fund to establish a lecture series "as a memorial to the late Dr William Herbert Hatfield FRS and as a mark of appreciation of his distinguished work in connection with research into the qualities and uses of metals and allied branches of science".
The lecturer is appointed by the University Council on the recommendation of a Lecture Committee consisting of representatives of the University, the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and of a number of other local and national organisations who sponsor the lecture.
The lectures are held annually at the University of Sheffield, usually in the first or second weeks of December.
Dr William Hatfield, FRS
William H Hatfield (1882-1943) studied metallurgy at University College, Sheffield, under Professor John Arnold, who held the Chair of Metallurgy from 1889 until 1919. In 1902 Hatfield won the Mappin Medal and in 1913 was awarded the degree of Doctor of Metallurgy.
Author of numerous technical papers on many branches of metallurgy, in particular rust, cast iron and acid and heat-resistant steels, Hatfield succeeded Harry Brearley Director of the Firth-Brown Research Laboratories in 1916, where he developed several stainless steel compositions, including 18/8 stainless steel, and later joined the Board of Messrs Thomas Firth and John Brown Limited, and was a member of many scientific societies, including being elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1935.
71st Hatfield Memorial Lecture (2024)
71st Hatfield Memorial Lecture
Past lectures
- 2023 - 70th Hatfield Memorial Lecture
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Designing sustainable metals for a low carbon future
Synopsis
The manufacturing and processing of metals to form components is one of the largest industrial sectors and accounts for 46% of all manufactured value, with an economic value to the European Economic Area of €1.3 trillion annually. Metals production consumes about 5% of global energy use and is responsible for an annual CO2 emission of over 2Gton. An obvious target in metal alloy development must be to significantly reduce this environmental impact. In addition, we face major future challenges as key elements that will be increasingly in short supply with the current price volatility getting much worse ("the ticking time bomb"). In addition to factors such as rarity, the geographical location of ores and local political uncertainty can severely limit supply. Rare earth elements are a prime example of this (for example, they are the key component of magnets and central to the performance of magnesium alloys).
The availability and sustainability of a large group of metallic elements are clearly critical in delivering new low-carbon energy (fusion reactors, wind turbines, the hydrogen economy, etc), transport (batteries, electric vehicles), construction and so on. Addressing resource efficiency in metals production and use requires that new metal alloys be developed specifically to reduce reliance on strategic and scarce elements, for recycling and for disruptive manufacturing technologies that minimise waste.
In this lecture I will address the major challenges facing UK metals manufacturing. The talk will take examples of how, by taking resource efficiency as a starting point, metal alloys can be designed to give improved properties, but less reliance on critical elements. Specific case studies will come from designing lean steels for ultra-high strength to give weight saving technologies in automotive, the challenges in steel quality in switching from BOS steel to EAF steel making, designing steel for Fusion Power Reactors, removing Rare Earth elements from wrought magnesium alloys and designing steels for the hydrogen economy.
Biography
Professor Mark Rainforth took a first class BMet degree from the Department of Metallurgy in Sheffield in 1984. He then continued his career in industry, firstly at British Steel and later at TI Research Hinxton Hall, before taking a PhD in the School of Materials in Leeds in 1990, moving as an academic to the Department of Materials in Sheffield in 1989. He was promoted to a Personal Chair in 2000, was Head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering between 2011-15 and was appointed the POSCO Professor of Iron and Steel in 2021.
A past President of the Royal Microscopical Society, he is recognised for his work on the processing and characterisation of metal alloys, with emphasis on a resource efficient approach to designing metal alloys for higher performance. He has worked extensively in steels, titanium, magnesium, cobalt and aluminium alloys.
Professor Rainforth was Director of the £44m Sheffield hub of the Henry Royce Institute, leading the design and construction of two new buildings (Royce Discovery Building and Royce Translational Centre) complete with a world leading equipment base.
He has directed two major industry facing institutes, namely, the £7m Institute for Microstructural and Mechanical Process Engineering (IMMPETUS) and the £10m Mercury Centre for Innovative Materials and Manufacturing. He led the £3m EPSRC grant “Designing Alloys for Resource Efficiency” (DARE) and co-investigator on the EPSRC Programme Grants £5m “Hydrogen in Metals (HEmS)” and the £5m “Tribology Enigma”. He is currently Sheffield PI on the EPSRC Future Steel Manufacturing Hub, SUSTAIN (£10.6m).
He has published over 400 ISI journal papers, publishing extensively in the top journals, including Nature, Science, Science Advances, Acta Materialia, Scripta Materialia, Scientific Reports and Proc Royal Soc (attracting over 1000 citations per year), one textbook and numerous invited presentations at leading international conferences around the globe.
Professor Rainforth was elected a Fellow Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 2016. He is the winner of the Verulam Medal and Prize, the Rosenhain Medal and the Pfeil Prize of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and a winner of the Thomas Stephens Prize and the Bronze Medal of the Tribology Group of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.
- 2022 - 69th Hatfield Memorial Lecture
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Build More Factories: The Case for a Manufacturing Led Industrial Strategy
Chris McDonald, Chief Executive Officer of the Materials Processing Institute, the UKs national centre for metals innovation
Abstract
Britain faces economic headwinds not seen in a generation. With our economy still recovering from COVID and the full impact of Brexit yet to be felt, we are buffeted by high energy prices, the war in Ukraine, increased global uncertainty and now steep rises in the cost of borrowing. It is true to say that many of these factors are affecting other countries too, but with economic growth for the UK forecast to be worse than every G7 nation other than Russia, we also need to reflect on what makes our economy so uniquely fragile.
The consequences of this economic underperformance are being felt across the nation, not only in boardrooms, but in living rooms too. In 2005 the average Britain was better off than those in France and Germany, but the last 10 years has seen the wealthiest get richer, whilst those on average wages are forecast to fall behind Poland by the end of the decade and Slovenia shortly after.
The UK has become one of the most unequal and poorest performing economies in the developed world. But this is not just an economic story, it is also a human tragedy - with half of the children aged under 5 in my home region of the North East now living in poverty.
In this lecture I will address the major economic and social challenges facing the UK in the coming period, what we neglected in the past and what we need to get right in the future. I will make the case for a manufacturing led industrial strategy, a long neglected part of British political thinking, to ensure that we secure the resources we need for our future economy, create the capability we need for our national security and deliver on the promise to improve life chances and opportunities for people, wherever they live.
Speaker biography
Chris McDonald is the Chief Executive Officer of the Materials Processing Institute, the UKs national centre for metals innovation. The Institute develops new technologies for commercial application, primarily to reduce carbon emissions.
Chris’s background is in industrial and manufacturing, where he has worked internationally. A graduate of Cambridge University, Chris is a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and the Royal Geographical Society. He is Chair of the UK Metals Council.
Chris is often called on to commentate in the media on industrial strategy, digital technologies, steel and decarbonisation. He provides expert consultancy and policy support in these areas.
Chris combines his professional activity with being Chair of the Redhills Charity in Durham and a Director of the Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust. He has a strong interest in the social impact of business including issues such as economic inequality, diversity & inclusion and sustainability.
- 2021 - 68th Hatfield Memorial Lecture
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Moving Phase Boundaries as a Means to Transport Solute Atoms in Steels
Professor Sybrand van der Zwaag, Delft University of Technology
Abstract
For solid state metallurgists the austenite-ferrite phase transformation in steels remains the most challenging and inspiring topic in the field. As it is our principal tool to create desired microstructures and properties, it has been widely studied but it is not simple to unravel the separate contributions of nucleation, intrinsic interface mobilities, solute trapping, long range element partitioning and maybe the interfacial structure itself. In this stimulating and informative talk Professor Sybrand van der Zwaag will show the recent progress in the understanding of interface motion in automotive steels and demonstrate how academic research may even lead to new processing routes. As is appropriate for the Hatfield lecture, the element Manganese will feature prominently. And given Professor van der Zwaag's Dutch origin, he was able to demonstrate that some of the concepts also can be found in Dutch dike design strategies and flood control.
Speaker biography
Professor Sybrand van der Zwaag studied Metallurgy at the Technical University Delft and obtained his MSc in 1978 after completing his graduation project at the Dutch Nuclear Research Centre. He then joined the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University (UK) and studied the impact damage in glass and infrared transparent ceramics due to supersonic impact with rain drops. He obtained his PhD in 1981.
As a post-doc he studied the relaxation kinetics in amorphous metals (metallic glasses). In 1983 he joined Akzo Corporate Research laboratories and worked extensively on the structure-property relations in aramid and other high performance fibres as well as new fibre spinning technologies. In 1992 he was appointed full professor in the field of Microstructural Control in Metals. His research focussed on the austenite-ferrite phase transformation in steels as well as the microstructural changes in aluminium alloys. In this capacity he was one of the founding fathers of the Netherlands Institute for Metals Research NIMR (now M2i).
In 2003 he was appointed full professor in the field of Novel Aerospace Materials, which concentrates its research on the design of novel high performance metals, polymers and polymer fibres, self healing materials and functional composites.
Professor Van der Zwaag is also director of the Delft Centre for Materials and chairman of the national IOP program on Self Healing Materials. He has published over 500 ISI publications and successfully supervised 50 PhD students. He is member of the Royal Dutch Society for Sciences and fellow of the (British) Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
In 2012 he was granted the honorary title ‘distinguished professor’ by the Board of the Delft University of Technology for his efforts to strengthen the collaboration between the university and industry in the field of materials science. Until July 2016 he was the scientific director of the Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI).
In January 2017 he was awarded an honorary PhD degree by the University of Mons (Belgium). In the same year he was awarded a prestigious Chinese research grant and a part-time professorship at Tsinghua University (China).
In 2017 he and some members of his team received the Henri Marion Howe medal from the American Society for Metals (USA) for his publications on self healing of creep damage in steels.
- 2019 - 67th Hatfield Memorial Lecture
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The New Space Race: How Your Future Career Might Just Take You to Orbit & Beyond…
Ever since the launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 in October 1957, humankind has sought to exploit the region beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. The fledgling years of the space industry witnessed the battle between the ideologies of East and West drive the development of space technology in a race to prove technical superiority.
Through the 70s, 80s and 90s space became increasingly the domain of large military and ground-breaking science missions; where only the richest nation states could afford to get off the launch pad. It is only relatively recently that a number of factors have come together to enable the democratisation of space, whereby it is now possible to buy & launch a satellite for the price of a sports car.
In this fast paced lecture, Oxford Space Systems’ CEO and Founder Mike Lawton will explore the dawn of the commercial space age and profile some of the exciting opportunities for technology - and even your career - in new race for space.
Mike Lawton is founder-CEO of Oxford Space Systems (OSS), an award-winning, early stage space technology business. The company ranks as #52 in the UK Top 100 UK Fastest Growing Companies. This is Mike’s third technology business, with previous ventures including a remote telemetry business built around an idea he had at university and a biofuel technology business that led to a joint venture in India, which won Mike the title of Green Entrepreneur for India 2009.
OSS, a private equity backed business based at the Harwell Space Cluster, is developing a new generation of deployable satellite antennas & structures that are lighter, less complex and lower cost than those in current demand. This is achieved by combining the company’s space-proven, proprietary materials with origami engineering techniques. As well as numerous international awards, OSS holds a space sector record for the fastest time from a new material concept to successful demonstration of the material in the form of a new boom product on orbit in less than 30 months.
Oxford Space Systems, recently won a £1m technology grant from MoD’s Defence and Security Accelerator for development of a wrapped-rib antenna, representing the largest award for a first time supplier to the MoD.
Mike was awarded Barclays Bank Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year in December 2018 for the progress and ambition of Oxford Space Systems. He is keen supporter of STEM activities in schools and colleges across the UK and believes in the need to excite the UK’s future generation of engineers and scientists.
- 2018 - 66th Hatfield Memorial Lecture
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Connection and Pathways Evolving from a Metallurgical Education at Sheffield University
Dr Jeffrey Wadsworth, Former President and CEO of Battelle Memorial Institute
In an entertaining and informative talk, Dr Jeff Wadsworth kept the Hatfield Memorial Lecture audience fully engaged with stories from his career. With his guidance, we travelled from Ancient Egypt to neural bypass technology, with several stops along the way.
The journey began with Dr Wadsworth’s work in the development of superplastic steels, and how they happened to discover, or rather rediscover, the secrets of Damascus Steel. In addition to reproducing the Damascus patterns that arise from redistribution of the carbides in steel, the superplastic steel was also made into laminates with mild steel, then forged and folded repeatedly, while undergoing heat treatment cycles to control the microstructure.
While working on the development of these laminated steels, Dr Wadsworth and his colleagues became aware of a process for carbon dating steel, allowing them to investigate the provenance of a number of historical artifacts.
With this knowledge, Dr Wadsworth turned his attention to reviewing some historical mysteries. Frank Richtig was a knife maker from Nebraska who claimed to have a secret method of treating his knives so that they would be tough and retain their sharp edge. To demonstrate their properties, Richtig would cut up steel bolts, horseshoes and axles, and then cut newspaper to show edge retention. Subsequent work found that Richtig had discovered the process of Austempering well ahead of his time.
Dr Jeff Wadsworth receives pewter bowl from Prof Koen Lamberts, Vice Chancellor of the University, to mark the occasion of his lecture.
Next, we travelled to Giza in Egypt, and the Great Pyramid, where a piece of laminated steel was discovered in 1837, and claimed to date from 2650 BC, with his understanding of carbon dating, Dr Wadsworth proposed to confirm the date using this technique. However, the British Museum were reluctant to let the artefact be compromised by such testing, so while the technique to more accurately estimate the age of the piece exists, this is one mystery that will remain intact...for now.
Dr Wadsworth then moved on to talking about the amazing work carried out at Battelle Memorial Institute, For instance, did you know that bar codes, compact discs and the Xerox machine were all developed at the Institute. They have the world’s most powerful laser, and the world’s fastest computer. They are leading research in energy, advanced manufacturing, defense and healthcare, and Dr Wadsworth, Alumnus of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Sheffield, led the company and shaped its vision for nine years.
In his presentation, Dr Wadsworth echoed the vision of Gordon Battelle, founder of the Battelle Memorial Institute. Battelle wanted to translate scientific discovery and technology advances into societal benefits for the purpose of education in connection with and the encouragement of creative and research work in the making of discoveries and inventions to do the greatest good for humanity.
Dr Wadsworth emphasised that there is no greater gift than that of an education and that he and the Battelle Memorial Institute are dedicated to making sure this continues to be the case. To this end, in addition to the private gifts that he and his wife have given, the Battelle Memorial Institute has made a donation to the University, to mark Dr Wadsworth’s retirement. In 2017, Battelle awarded the University $1.5 million to support international research partnerships - an early career fellowship exchange programme between the University, Battelle and Ohio State University.
The ambition for the Wadsworth Fellowships is to provide an outstanding educational experience for early-career researchers and to advance the academic programmes and values of the institutions involved.
- 2010-2017
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65.
Biomaterial Scaffolds for Tissue Repair – The “Hole” Story
Professor Serena Best
2017
64.
The Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials: The Challenge
Professor Julia King
2016
63.
The Future of Materials
Professor Mark Miodownik
2015
62.
Learning from the past? - Fatigue failures in engineered systems
Professor David K. Matlock
2014
61.
Environmentally friendly anodizing of aluminium alloys
Professor George Thompson OBE FREng
2013
60.
How things fail? - An inside View
Professor Philip Withers, FREng, FIMMM, FRAeS
2012
59.
How safe is that nuclear reactor?
Professor George Smith, FRS
2011
58.
Steel – the winning edge
Professor Peter Brown FIMMM
2010
- 2000-2009
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57.
The Materials Requirements for the Origin of Life
Professor Anthony J Ryan OBE, FRSC, FIMMM
2009
56.
Materials Engineering for the Next Nuclear Generation
Stephen J Garwood
2008
55.
Railways and Materials: Synergetic Progress
Professor Rod Smith, FREng
2007
54.
Quantifying the Quality of Steel
Professor John Knott, OBE, FRS, FREng, FIMMM
2006
53.
Big Science and Materials Opportunities, Breakthroughs and the Future
Professor John Wood FREng, FIMMM
2005
52.
Large Chunks of Strong Steel
Professor H K D H Bhadeshia FRS, FREng, FIMMM
2004
51.
New Materials from Trace Additions: economic resources and environmental consequences
Professor Jane A Plant CBE, FIMMM
2003
50.
Metallurgical Modelling of Thermomechanical Processing
Professor C M Sellars BMet, PhD, DMet, HonCMechD, FREng, FIMMM
2002
49.
Technology - Driving Steel Forward
Dr M J Pettifor, FIMMM
2001
48.
From Hatfield to High-Technology: Designing Materials for the Twenty-First Century
Professor Colin J Humphreys CBE, BSc, PhD, FREng, FIMMM, FInstP
2000
- 1990-1999
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47.
Iron, the hidden element - The Role of Iron and Steel in the 20th Century
Professor R Boom FIMMM
1999
46.
Power and the Environment
Mr P C Ruffles CBE, FREng, FRS, FlMechE, FRAeS, RDI
1998
45.
Steel Competitveness: joining matters
Dr R E Dolby OBE, FREng, FIMMM, FWeldI
1997
44.
From Concept to Patient - Tailor-Making Biomaterials for Medical Implants
Professor W Bonfield CBE, FREng, FRS, FIMMM, FBSE, FInstP
1996
43.
The New World of Steel
Dr J W Edington FREng, FIMMM
1995
42.
What's Missing in Materials?
Emeritus Professor G W Greenwood PhD, DMet, FREng, FRS, FIMMM, FInstP
1994
41.
Technology Management in the Steel Industry - Current Challenges
J J Irani, MSc, MMet, PhD, DMet
1993
40.
Materials Selection in Mechanical Design
Professor M F Ashby, MA, PhD, FRS, FREng, FIMMM
1992
39.
Challenges for Metallurgical Research Imposed by Increasingly Complex Technologies
Professor Dr H Warlimont
1991
38.
Steel - Technical Achievements and Challenges
Dr F Fitzgerald, CBE, PhD, DEng, FIChemE, FInstE
199
- 1980-1989
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37.
Net Shape Solidification Processing of Steel, 1945-1995
Professor M C Flemings, SB, SM, ScD, FIAME
1989
36.
Clean Steel - Dirty Steel: Sulphur - Friend or Foe
Emeritus Professor J Nutting, MA, PhD, ScD, FIM, FREng
1988
35.
European Steel: What Future?
Sir Robert Scholey, CBE, DEng, FREng
1987
34.
Thermo~Capillary and Other "Tears of Wine" Phenomena in Materials
Dr ED Hondros, MSc, DSc, CEng, FIM, FRS
1986
33.
Nuclear Power: Perspective and Prospects
Emeritus Professor Sir Peter Hirsch, MA, DSc, ScD, DEng, FRS
1985
32.
The Steel Strategy of the Community
Vicomte E Davignon
1984
31.
Stainless Steels - Materials in Competition
Professor R Kiessling
1983
30.
The Development of Nickel Alloys for the Gas Turbine
Sir Robin Nicholson, MA, PhD, DSc, DMet, DEng, FIM, MInstP, Clmgt, FIChemE, FREng, FRS
1980
- 1970-1979
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29.
Ferrite
Emeritus Professor Sir Robert Honeycombe, MSc, PhD, FIM, DMet, FREng, FRS
1979
28.
From Invention to Industrial Development
M L Coche
1978
27.
Welding and the Steel Industry
R Weck, CBE, FWeldI
1977
26.
Steels in Nuclear Power - Problems and Promise
R W Nichols, FREng
1975
25.
Materials and Malthus
Sir Alan Cottrell, PhD, ScD, DSc, FIC, FREng, FRS
1974
24.
Euro-Steel Research
R S Barnes, MSc, DSc, FInstP, FIM, FRSA, FKC
1973
23.
Electroslag Remelting - A Modern Tool in Metallurgy
Professor E Plockinger
1972
22.
Small Steelworks
W F Cartwright, CBE, DL, MIMechE
1971
21.
The Heterogeneity of Steel
Sir James Menter, MA, PhD, ScD, CPhys, FInstP, FRS
1970
- 1960-1969
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20.
Metallic Chemistry in 1, 2 and 3 Dimensions
L S Darken, PhD
1969
19.
Twenty-Five Years On
Sir Montague Finniston
1968
18.
The Metallurgy of Cast Iron
Professor H Morrogh, CBE, DSc, FREng, FRS
1967
17.
The Intermetallic Chemistry of Iron
Professor W Hume-Rothery
1965
16.
Basic Knowledge: Discovery and Invention in the Birth of New Metallurgical Processes
Professor F D Richardson
1964
15.
Metallography - a Hundred Years After Sorby
Professor A G Quarrell, PhD, DSc, DMet, ARCS, DIC, FInstP, FIM
1963
14.
On the Development of High Strength in Steel
M Cohen, PhD
1962
13.
The Contribution of Metallurgy to Electric Power Generation
Professor L Rotherham, CBE, DSc, FlEE, SFlnstE, FIM, FInstP, FREng, FRS
1960
- 1950-1959
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12.
Phenomena Occurring in the Quenching and Tempering of Steels
Academician G Kurdjomov
1959
11.
The Mechanical Properties of the Ferrite Crystal
N P Allen, MMet, DSc, FIM, FRS
1958
10.
The Mechanism of Formation of Banded Structures
P G Bastien, DSc
1957
9.
Fracture in Metals
Sir Nevill Mott, MA, DSc, FRS
1956
8.
Trends in Metallurgical Research in the United States
E C Bain
1955
7.
Development in the Iron and Steel Industry in Great Britain During the Last Twenty-Five Years
T P Colclough, CBE, MMet, DSc, FRIC
1954
6.
The Flow of Metals
Professor E N da C Andrade, FRS
1952
5.
Turbine Problem in the Development of the Whittle Engine
Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, DSc, ScD, DTech, FREng, FRS
1951
- 1946-1949
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4.
The Plastic Behaviour of Solids
Sir A McCance, DSc, LLD, FRS
1949
3.
The Decomposition of Austenite by Nucleation and Growth Processes
R F Mehl, PhD, DSc, DEng
1948
2.
Steels for Use at Elevated Temperatures
C Sykes, DSc, FRS
1947
1.
The Services to Metallurgy of the Late Dr W H Hatfield, FRS
G B Waterhouse, PhD, DMet
1946
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