Keynote speakers

Tresa Pollock is the Alcoa Distinguished Professor of Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  Tresa’s research focuses on the mechanical and environmental performance of materials in extreme environments, unique high temperature materials processing paths, ultrafast laser-material interactions, alloy design and 3-D materials characterization.  Tresa graduated with a B.S. from Purdue University in 1984, and a Ph.D. from MIT in 1989.  She was employed at General Electric Aircraft Engines from 1989 to 1991, where she conducted research and development on high temperature alloys for aircraft turbine engines and co-developed the single crystal alloy René N6 (now in service).  Tresa was a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University from 1991 to 1999 and the University of Michigan from 2000 - 2010. She was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2005, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2015, and is a DOD Vannevar Bush Fellow and Fellow of TMS and ASM International.  She served as Editor in Chief of the Metallurgical and Materials Transactions family of journals from 2017-2025, was the 2005-2006 President of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society and served as Materials Department Chair (2011 – 2017), Associate Dean of Engineering (2018 – 2021) and Interim Dean of the College of Engineering at UCSB (2021 – 2023).

Mark Hardy is a Rolls-Royce Engineering Fellow, specialising in nickel alloys.  He has been at R-R for 27 years, working on all aspects of Ni alloys for disc rotor applications, from definition of alloy composition and material manufacture, through to characterising material behaviour for life assessment. Mark is a Fellow of the UK Institute of Minerals, Metals and Materials (IOM3) and a member of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society in the United States.  He has authored/co-authored over 100 technical publications, is an inventor in 22 patent applications/patents and has been industrial supervisor to over 50 PhD students.  Mark was awarded the IOM3 Ivor Jenkins Medal for contributions to powder metallurgy in 2013.