Presented by:
with Professor Sir Harshad Bhadeshia
Harry Bhadeshia is Professor of Metallurgy at Queen Mary University of London. His primary interest has been on the theory of solid-state phase transformations with emphasis on the estimation and verification of microstructural development in complex metallic alloys, particularly multicomponent steels. He has authored or co-authored some 700 research publications.
These include Bainite in steels (3rd edition 2015), Steels (5th edition 2024, with Robert Honeycombe), Geometry of crystals, polycrystals and phase transformations (2018), Theory of transformations in steels} (2021), Innovations in everyday engineering materials (2021, with Tarashankar DebRoy), Phase transitions (2023 with Haixue Yan) and Pearlite in steels (2024). His archive of teaching and research materials are freely available: https://www.phase-trans.msm.cam.ac.uk
STEEL – good, bad or ugly for humanity?
Food, air and water are essential for life, and notwithstanding the consequences of war, technology and science have enabled a population of some 8.2 billion humans to be nourished, in
contradiction to the predictions of the Club of Rome’s limits to growth report in 1972. Dramatic increases in food production became possible with the introduction of agricultural heavy machinery that owes a lot to steel. Even making smartphones, medicines, things that fly, crucially rely on steel. The quality of modern life therefore depends on steel to a greater extent than any other material. Is there really a way to solve a significant part of the CO2 problem while maintaining the quality of life and keeping industry and consumers happy?