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Johannes Schenk started his professional career at Voestalpine Industrieanlagenbau (now Primetals Technologies Austria) in 1990. He was working as a process and research engineer for different ironmaking technologies such as MIDREX, COREX and FINMET. As general manager and vice president of R&D, he was responsible for developing the FINEX process between 1992 and 2007. Since 2008, he has been a full professor for the Chair of Ferrous Metallurgy at the Montanuniversität Leoben. His research focuses on the primary technology for steel production, i.e. ironmaking and crude steel production. The current topics in the ongoing research projects are related to CO2 lean steel production and circular economy. Since 2015 he is also the Chief Scientific Officer of the Austrian metallurgical competence center K1-MET GmbH. Johannes Schenk has published more than 180 papers in Journals and Conference Proceedings and is the inventor and co-inventor of more than 30 patent families.
Jan van der Stel works for Tata Steel Europe on the IJmuiden steelmaking site in the Netherlands. He studied applied physics at the Technical University in Delft. He joined the company in 1988, where he started in Steelmaking and Continuous Casting research. He worked on the development of tundish and mould metallurgy continuous billet and slab and the introduction of thin slab casting as a process engineer and project leader. Thereafter he worked in the department for Measurement and Control as a knowledge group leader. In 1997 he became R&D knowledge group leader Blast Furnace Developments and Alternative Ironmaking. There he did developments on blast furnace coal injection, burden distribution especially modelling and instrumentation, hearth processes and blast furnace process development. In 2004 he became the Tata Steel project leader/coordinator of the Ulcos Top Gas Recycling Blast furnace project and in 2007 the consortium co-ordinator of the TGR-BF project, which aims at for reduction of the CO2 emission of the integrated steel works. In 1997 he also joined the ECSC and later the RFCS TGS1 expert committee on the reduction of ores. Several EU-projects were done, including Ulcos TGR BF, coal injection, burden distribution, instrumentation and hearth processes. He is scientific fellow and knowledge group leader in ironmaking at Tata Steel R&D dealing with blast furnace and alternative ironmaking, with focus on lowering the carbon footprint of the steelworks, e.g. by HIsarna developments.
Dr Yukihiro Kubota obtained his PhD from Tohoku University in 2012. He has over 20 years of cokemaking research experience in Nippon Steel Corporation. His current role in NSC is the Chief Manager, Head of Coal & Coke Research Department, Ironmaking research Laboratory. He specalises in coal blending theory, coal preparation techniques, coke quality estimation, strength, size, and reactivity. His Keynote address at ISSCI 2023 focuses on current topics of development of ironmaking and cokemaking in Japan.
Jeanne Els started her career in the steel industry in South Africa where she joined Hatch as a consultant in iron and steelmaking. Much of her initial focus was new or alternative ironmaking technologies. Moving to Australia, Jeanne’s focus remained at the primary end of the steelmaking value chain. She developed and led a global team that supported all aspects of new ironmaking technologies, including technology development, technology review, technology implementation and project development. As part of the executive leadership team at Hatch, Jeanne has undertaken a variety of roles and has worked in many different countries, often in new areas of business. This has provided her with extensive leadership experience across Hatch operations. Jeanne has recently taken on the role to lead development of the green steel business for Hatch in Australia-Asia, working closely with the Hatch Metals team globally.
Dr Paul Zulli was appointed Director of the ARC Research Hub for Australian Steel Manufacturing in March 2017. He is an internationally recognised leader in steel manufacturing research, technology development and deployment, combining over 30 years of technical and management experience across many aspects of the steel and ferrous minerals industries. He is a respected leader of multi-disciplinary teams, with an established reputation for delivery of tactical and strategic project outcomes into various operating businesses. An influential senior manager, he has been active in seeking to bridge the gaps between academic research products and innovative industrial solutions, with the goal to provide value-adding and sustainable outcomes. He has been successful in securing numerous competitive national funds. His specific areas of scientific reputation include development and implementation of simulation methods and operational systems concerned with complex manufacturing processes in difficult industrial settings, coupled with experimentation, pilot and plant trials activities. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.
Dr Sangho Yi’s research focuses on Innovative ironmaking pathways with emphasis on green steel technology addressing climate change. He led the development of FINEX®, which succeeded in commercialization through the pilot development process from basic research. Yi is actively involved in various discussion for a number of global and national forums on the energy conversion of the steel industry. Currently, he is involved in the development of the hydrogen-reduction steelmaking process HyREX, an innovative decarbonization process, POSCO. And he concurrently serves as the director of the Research Center for Hydrogen Steelmaking Technology, POSTECH, Korea.
Professor Aibing Yu specialized in process metallurgy, obtaining BEng in 1982 and MEng in 1985 from Northeastern University, China, PhD in 1990 from University of Wollongong and DSc in 2007 from the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is currently Pro Vice-Chancellor and President (Suzhou), Monash University, and Director of ARC Research Hub for Computational Particle Technology. He is a world-leading scientist in particle/powder technology and process engineering. He has authored/co-authored >1,000 publications (including >800 collected in the ISI Web of Science), delivered many invited plenary/keynote presentations at various international conferences, and graduated >50 postdoc fellows and >130 PhD students. He is Executive Editor of Powder Technology, Regional Editor of Granular Matter, and on the editorial board of ~20 learned journals. He is a recipient of numerous prestigious awards and fellowships. He was elected to Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2004, and Australian Academy of Science in 2011, and Foreign Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2017.
The Centre for Ironmaking Materials Research (CIMR) and The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.
