A MAPP scientist’s work on the additive manufacture of magnetically graded steels has won a prestigious prize in the European Powder Metallurgy Association’s 2021 Thesis Competition.

Post-Doctoral Research Associate Dr Felicity Freeman, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield, won the first prize in the Diploma/PhD category for her thesis on: ‘Structuring Difference: The Additive Manufacture of Spatially and Functionally Differentiated Microstructures’.

The thesis covers the development of an in-situ magnetically and microstructurally graded material, built by selective laser melting from a single composition of 17-4PH stainless steel.

The European Powder Metallurgy Association (EPMA) has organised a Powder Metallurgy Thesis Competition, at both Masters and Doctorate levels, every two years since 1994, and annually since 2016.

The certificate will be presented during the Plenary Session of the Euro PM2021 virtual Congress on Monday 18 October 2021.

The aim of the competition is to develop an interest in and to promote powder metallurgy among young scientists at European academic institutions and to encourage research at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Dr Freeman said: “Winning this prize has been a wonderful bit of good news, after a rather unusual year. It's always nice to get acknowledgement and recognition of something you've spent a lot of time and effort on, particularly from people outside your day-to-day network.”

The competition is open to all graduates of a European university whose theses have been officially accepted or approved by the applicant's teaching establishment during the previous three years.

Theses, which must be classified under the topic of Powder Metallurgy, are judged by an international panel of experts, drawn from both academia and industry.