The Nelson W. Taylor Lecture in Materials Science and Engineering honors the memory of Professor Nelson W. Taylor (1869–1965) who was head of Penn State’s Department of Ceramics from 1933–1943. During his tenure as department head, Dr. Taylor refined the ceramics undergraduate curriculum, strengthened the graduate program, expanded ties with industry, and was able to attract important scientists (for example Woldemar A. Weyl) to the faculty. He is recognized as the individual most responsible for establishing the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences as a major center for ceramics research. The Nelson W. Taylor Lecture Series was established in 1969, and has consistently attracted scientists of international prominence.
Join us on Friday, September 26 for the 2025 Taylor Lecture
7:45 a.m. - Coffee and donuts
8:20 a.m. - "Data science for additive processing of steel alloys" presented by Amrita Basak, Shuman Early Career Professor, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Penn State
9:15 a.m. - "What is old is new again: new research challenges in the development and processing of stainless steels" presented by Todd Palmer, Professor, Engineering Science and Mechanics and Materials Science and Engineering, Penn State
10:20 a.m. - "Welding science powers 3D printing, but can metal supply chains keep up?" presented by Tarasankar DebRoy, Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, Penn State
11:20 a.m. - Keynote: "Diffusion in iron: sometimes invigorating, at other times lethargic" presented by Sir Harry Bhadeshia, Professor, School of Engineering & Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London
2025 Keynote Speaker
"Diffusion in iron: sometimes invigorating, at other times lethargic"
Sir Harry Bhadeshia, Professor, School of Engineering & Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London
In his presentation, he will explore the conventional view that diffusion fluxes are proportional to gradients in concentration or free energy, with the proportionality constant referred to as the diffusion coefficient or mobility, respectively. Bhadeshia offers an alternative, the flux is expected to increase when the gradient becomes more negative. These coefficients feature in kinetic theory and have led to several difficulties when attempting to estimate the structure and properties of steels, with the altruistic goal of creating ‘concept steels’, that fire the imagination but may not ever make it into reality, though aspects might be fruitfully exploited.
Entrenched theory for the growth of some transformation products of Austenite considers a bizarre scenario: atoms are mobile but do not lead to free energy minimization. Additionally, the resulting concentration gradients develop that are so steep as to be physically meaningless and knowing that steep-enough gradients should retard flux.
Bhadeshia will draw on the work of John E. Hilliard and others to address how this can be resolved and why it matters. In particular, the atomic mechanisms are clarified, to such an extent that it becomes feasible to mass-produce remarkable steels with minimal experimentation. He will demonstrate that the natural intelligence associated with such methods surpasses the artificial variety by a far cry.
Certain interstitial atoms in iron exhibit mobility that far exceeds theoretical predictions, there are cases where diffusion is so slow that it would take eons to create alloys of iron that emulate extraterrestrial objects of desire, rendering it unfeasible, at least on Earth, to manufacture a hexagonal close-packed iron alloy with an equiaxed grain structure.
Sir Harry Bhadeshia is a professor of metallurgy at Queen Mary University of London, emeritus Tata Steel professor at the University of Cambridge, and trustee of the American University of Central Asia. His contributions to the field of metallurgy have been recognized with fellowships from both the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Bhadeshia is known for his contribution to metallurgy through his work on designing and creating new, stronger, and more sustainable steels by precisely controlling their microstructure during a process known as bainite transformation.
His research is primarily focused on understanding and predicting solid-state phase transformations in steel, the process by which a steel's internal crystalline structure changes. By applying physics, mathematics, and computation, he developed a theoretical framework that allows metallurgists to predict the resulting microstructure and engineer new alloys with superior properties.
Bhadeshia has influenced a generation of metallurgists and pushed the field toward more sustainable, knowledge-driven innovation. He is deeply committed to teaching all facets of materials science.
Much of his work can be obtained freely from https://www.phase-trans.msm.cam.ac.uk.
"Data science for additive processing of steel alloys"
Amrita Basak, Shuman Early Career Professor, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Penn State
This talk outlines two key areas in applying data science to additive processing of steel alloys: how to predict (forward map) process outcomes more efficiently, and how to optimize (inverse map) process parameters to achieve desired results. We present a multi-fidelity modeling framework that integrates models of varying complexity and heterogeneous input spaces to deliver accurate and rapid predictions in laser-directed energy deposition (L-DED). Using a heterogeneous multi-fidelity probabilistic surrogate, this approach enhances predictive accuracy while reducing computational cost. Complementing prediction, we introduce a reinforcement learning-based optimization strategy that autonomously identifies optimal laser power and scan velocity settings to maintain desired process stability. Leveraging an experimentally validated digital twin, the off-policy Q-learning algorithm learns optimal process parameters without prior knowledge, enabling on-the-fly process control. Together, these data-driven methods advance steel alloy additive manufacturing by strengthening both forward prediction and inverse optimization capabilities.
Amrita Basak is the Shuman Early Career Professor, and associate professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State. Basak’s research group focuses on understanding the fundamental processing-structure-property relationships in advanced manufacturing of high-performance metallic alloys. Additionally, her group actively collaborates with other research groups within and outside of Penn State to understand such relationships in ceramic, construction, and polymeric materials.
She received her doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech. Basak holds two master’s degrees—aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech and chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur. She received her undergraduate education in chemical engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.
Between Basak's academic pursuits, she spent approximately one year as a process engineer at Intel Corporation, Portland, Oregon and six years as a lead engineer at General Electric, Bangalore, India.
“What is old is new again: new research challenges in the development and processing of stainless steels”
Todd Palmer, Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and Materials Science and Engineering, Penn State
Knowledge of the strengthening of iron with carbon addition dates back approximately 4,000 years, dating back to the Iron Age. With the development of the Bessemer process in the 1850’s, large scale steel production became possible, leading to the emergence of steel as the dominant and most important material of the 20th century and a leading indicator of economic development across emerging economies. The breadth of material systems that fall under the general “steels” category go far beyond the plain carbon steels that dominate global production. Stainless steels display a wide range of unique properties and are utilized across the medical device, aerospace, chemical processing, and energy sectors in different product forms through several processing routes. Over the past several decades, research in steels has been displaced by the emergence of flashier materials systems, but steels are the original “compositionally complex alloys” and typically contain more than a dozen components that interact to form unexpected phases and impact both properties and performance. Emerging issues of sustainability, scarcity, and the need for more efficient processing routes present distinct challenges for manufacturing, particularly with the increasing reliance on critical materials that are also needed for the production of stainless steels. New research directions in the processing and production of existing and new stainless steels are needed and will present the materials research community with new challenges and research opportunities.
Todd Palmer is a professor of engineering science and mechanics and of materials science and engineering, and the director of the Center for Innovative Sintered Products at Penn State. His current research focuses on the laser and electron beam joining and additive manufacturing of metallic materials. Much of this work has involved an in depth understanding of process-structure-property relationships leading to defect formation during laser and electron beam welding as well as process development to avoid or mitigate the formation of these defects.
Previously, Palmer was a metallurgist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a senior scientist at the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State.
Palmer earned his bachelor and master degrees in metals science and engineering and a doctoral degree in materials science and engineering from Penn State. He also holds a master of business administration degree from Penn State.
He is currently an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow in the U.S. Department of Defense for the 2025-2026 academic year.
"Welding science powers 3D printing, but can metal supply chains keep up?"
Tarasankar DebRoy, Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, Penn State
Yesterday’s welding evoked images of danger and primitive technology with flying sparks, musty aroma, and fumes. Beneath the surface over the last several decades, a sophisticated scientific foundation of heat transfer, phase transformations, and process-microstructure relationships has evolved.
Today, welding has entered the digital age, and its underlying scientific principles are becoming a foundation for additive manufacturing (3D printing). Sophisticated mechanistic and machine learning models developed to understand welding are now being repurposed to guide layer-by-layer fabrication, transforming how we design and produce unique critical components, such as customized prosthetics and GE air engine’s fuel nozzles that we now take for granted.
However, in the future, this technological leap faces a looming challenge—the continuing availability of metal feedstocks. As the global population grows, living standards rise, and clean energy ambitions intensify, the demand for metals is soaring, putting immense pressure on already fragile metal supply chains. Sustaining the progress of welding and additive manufacturing now depends on securing reliable, responsible, and ethical metal resources, an urgent task for preserving our technology-driven, metals-based civilization for all people.
Tarasankar DebRoy is a professor of materials science and engineering, journal editor, YouTuber, and Fulbrighter (Fulbright-FACAPE Distinguished Chair). He is the author of
- Innovations in Everyday Engineering Materials, downloaded over 11,000 times from Springer’s website;
- Theory and Practice of Additive Manufacturing, a John Wiley textbook featuring more than 100 worked-out examples; and
- Digital Twins of Advanced Materials Processing, forthcoming from Elsevier in Fall 2025.
DebRoy's papers in Science, Reviews of Modern Physics, Nature Materials, Nature Reviews Materials, Materials Today, Progress in Materials Science, and other journals have been well cited (more than 42,500 times).
His research has earned him the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Distinguished Visiting Fellowship (Cambridge), the Arata Award (IIW, France), the Easterling Award (University of Graz, Austria, and IIW), and the American Welding Society’s Adams memorial membership, Irrgang, Spraragen, McKay-Helm, Jennings, Savage, Adams lecturer and honorary membership awards. He has held the distinguished visiting professorship at IIT Bombay, the Aditya Birla Chair at IISc Bangalore, and visiting professorships at KTH Stockholm, University West (Sweden), and AUST (Nigeria). He delivered plenary and keynote lectures at many conferences and was an invited speaker at institutions including the University of Michigan, Cornell, UCLA, The Ohio State University, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Cambridge (UK), IIT Bombay (India), IISc (India), AUST (Nigeria), CMRDI (Egypt), CSIRO (Australia) and U.S. Department of State.
Nelson W. Taylor Awardees
* Nobel Laureate
| 2024 Sossina M. Haile 2023 Arun Varshneya 2022 Michael Rubinstein 2020 Cato T. Laurencin 2019 Giulia Galli 2018 Ramamoorthy Ramesh 2017 Jennifer Lewis 2016 Shuji Nakamura* 2015 Thomas Kelly 2013 P. M. Ajayan 2012 Subra Suresh 2010 Chad A. Mirkin 2009 Tobin J. Marks 2008 John B. Goodenough* 2007 Timothy P. Lodge 2006 Lawrence L. Kazmerski 2005 Marvin L. Cohen | 2004 Robert S. Langer 2003 Charles M. Lieber 2001 George Craford 1999 John Price Hirth 1998 Alan G. MacDiarmid* 1997 Larry L. Hench 1995 Thomas W. Eagar 1994 Gerhard Wagner 1993 Richard E. Smalley* 1991 Richard Balzhiser 1990 Mats Hillert 1989 Sir Samual Edwards 1988 Makoto Kikuchi 1987 David W. Johnson, Jr. 1986 Paul B. Weisz 1985 Julian Szekely | 1984 Pierre-Gilles de Gennes* 1983 William O. Baker 1982 W. Dave Kingery 1981 Irving Wender 1980 Morris Cohen 1979 Turner Alfrey, Jr. 1978 Edward Teller 1977 Elburt E. Osborn 1976 John A. Duffie 1975 Cyril Smith 1974 Herman Mark 1973 Linus Pauling* 1972 Gene Haertling 1971 Clarence Zener 1970 John Saylor 1970 Horst Scholze |