BIO of Paul Butterworth

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Paul is Research Manager, Steel Raw Materials at CRU and Country Manager of CRU’s Singapore office.
Paul joined CRU in 2012 and has overall responsibility for CRU's analysis of the steel raw materials markets, including iron ore, metallurgical coal, metallurgical coke and ferroalloys, as well as thermal coal. Paul is also responsible for the Steel team cost services, which currently include a comprehensive suite of cost models covering iron ore mining, coal mining, manganese ore mining, steelmaking and ferroalloys operations worldwide. Paul has 29 years' experience in the steel industry, having worked for Tata Steel, Corus, British Steel and the International Iron and Steel Institute (now the WorldSteel Association) in a range of strategic, business development, planning and technical roles. Paul holds an MBA from Warwick Business School, a Ph.D in Theoretical Chemistry and a BSc. Honours Chemistry degree from Manchester University. He is a Chartered Chemist and Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (CChem MRSC).

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BIO of Maarten Geerdes

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Dr. Maarten Geerdes (1951) holds a PhD in Chemistry and a Master in Economics. He started working as a technical manager of blast furnace operation in the Hoogovens Steelworks in Ijmuiden, The Netherlands in 1983. He served as a director Ironmaking and technical consultant in many steel plants, for instance in Mexico, USA and Argentina. Since 2002 self-employed consultant for blast furnace operational improvement and special situations like blow-in, blow-down and chill recovery. Recent years among others in China, Brazil, South-Korea, Russia and Ukraine.
He is the main author of “Modern Blast Furnace Ironmaking, an introduction”, that is worldwide used for training of blast furnace operators and technical staff. The book is frequently updated; the 3rd edition was published in April 2015. The book has been translated in Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian and Dutch. He has authored numerous articles about high coal injection, coal-gas-coinjection, alkali, melting of the ferrous burden and the role of coke in the Blast Furnace.
He frequently teaches in ironmaking courses(Brasil, China, Canada, India, Germany, Belgium, in plant training).
He received in 2018 the Thomas L. Joseph award by the American AIST for lifelong contributions to the field of Ironmaking

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BIO of Yakov Gordon

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Yakov graduated as a Metallurgical Engineer from the Ural State Technical University in Russia, where he also obtained his Ph.D and Doctor of Technical Science Degrees. Professor of Metallurgical Furnaces Department from 1974 to 1995, Consultant at Hatch Iron & Steel business unit from 1996 up to now, where he holds his current position as Technical Director - Ironmaking.
The principal areas of Yakov’s engineering, consulting and research work are blast furnaces, coke making, alternative ironmaking, sintering and pelletizing. Yakov is the author of 2 monographs, 7 student text books (in Russian), over 200 papers, and 27 International Patents.
In 2015 Yakov was awarded by AIST’s “Howe Memorial Lecture Award” for his contribution to development and practical implementation of new innovative technologies and technical solutions into Iron & Steel Industry.
In 2019 Yakov became AIST’s “Distinguished Member and Fellow”.

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BIO of Michael Grant

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Mike started his career working in blast furnace ironmaking for Inland Steel (now ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor East). There, he spent almost 10 years working in R&D, Operations Technology and blast furnace operations until end of 1997. His work spanned the fields of blast furnace ironmaking from raw materials specifications to stove and PCI performance to tactical blast furnace operations. He joined Air Liquide to develop and implement gas and carbon injection technologies for the electric arc furnace (EAF).
In 2001, when Air Liquide purchased American Combustion (ACI), he began working for ACI designing and commissioning oxygen injection systems for EAFs. During this time, he has designed, successfully commissioned and optimized gas injection systems on more than 30 electric arc furnaces worldwide. In 2007, he was transferred to the Air Liquide Research labs just outside Paris to work on EAF and Blast Furnace topics – most notably the European Commission ULCOS project (Ultra Low CO2 Steelmaking) where, for five years, he was a member of the European Commission team developing and analyzing the Top Gas Recycling Blast Furnace along with its operating procedures.
Mike is an author of 56 published technical articles and 6 patents. Each year for the past 22 years, he has been an invited lecturer at the AIST Modern Electric Furnace Steelmaking Training Seminar in the United States. He is based in Frankfurt, Germany as part of the Strategy and Marketing team at Air Liquide Large Industries World Business Line. His present title is "International Senior Expert, Ironmaking and EAF Steelmaking".

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BIO of Liming Lu

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Dr Liming Lu is currently a Senior Principal Scientist leading CSIRO research and development in iron ore agglomeration and high temperature behaviour of resultant agglomerates during the blast furnace and other alternative ironmaking processes. He obtained his PhD degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, in 2001. After finishing his PhD, Liming took an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research of Canda) to continiue his research at the Unversity of Toronto, Canada. Liming joined CSIRO as a Senior Scientist in March 2005 to lead the CSIRO R and D in iron ore sintering. Before joining CSIRO, Liming had worked as a research academic at the University of Queensland, Australia, for two and half years to develop novel grain refiners for magnesium alloys and eutectic modifiers for aluminiun casting alloys. Liming was the recipient of Josef S Kapitan Award from American Iron and Steel Society in 2003 and the Sawamura Award from the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan in 2018. He is also a Technical Expert of ISO Technical Committee TC102/SC3, which is reviewing and developing international standards for the physical testing of iron ore. Liming has more than 30 years R and D experience in the characterisation, processing and evaluation of iron ores, metallurgical coals and molten alloys. His research interests cover: high temperature processing of minerals and wastes, thermodynamics and kinetics of pyrometallurgical processes, environmental issues in pyrometallurgical processes and alloy solidification.
Liming is the editor of a 20-Chapter book entitled “Iron ore – mineralogy, processing and environmental sustainability” published by Elsevier in 2015 and the lead editor of a special issue on the biomass materials for metallurgical applications for Advances in Materials Science and Engineering published by Hindawi in 2018. He has also published 9 book chapters and more than 136 papers including 6 invited review papers in Chemosphere, JOM, ISIJ International and other leading international journals. Over the years, he was invited to present plenary/keynote papers at 9 international conferences and has given invited lectures at more than 30 leading international research organizations, universities, and steel and mining companies. Liming has served as a member of Review Board for Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A and Minerals, a member of Editorial Board for Ironmaking and Steelmaking, and an Advisory Board member of ISIJ International. He was appointed as an Adjunct Professor by Central South University in 2011, Kunming University of Science and Technology in 2012, Liaoning University of Science and Technology in 2014 and Shanghai University in 2017.

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BIO of Dennis Lu

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Dennis Lu was born and raised in China. He received his Bachelor of Science in Ironmaking and Steelmaking at Northeast University in Shenyang, Liaoning, China in 1983 at a time when China started the “open door” policy. He was selected by the Chinese government to study overseas. In 1985, he pursued his graduate studies under the supervision of Dr. Wei-Kao Lu and Dr. Gordon Irons at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Dennis received his Ph. D. in Materials Science and Engineering at McMaster University in 1992.
Dennis worked for one year at Hoogovens Technical Services (now Danieli-Corus) in Burlington, Ontario as a technical specialist and project manager for blast furnace reline, consulting and engineering support for steel plants in USA and Canada.
Dennis spent the next 14 years as an operation technology engineer and manager in ironmaking and steelmaking at USS/Kobe Steel in Lorain, OH; USS-Gary Works in Gary, IN; and AM–IHW in East Chicago, IN, USA. He provided the technical support and guidance for the daily iron and steel productions at these three plants.
For the last 11 years, Dennis has been a senior and then a lead research engineer, Raw Materials and Ironmaking, Global R&D, ArcelorMittal, East Chicago, IN, USA. Combining his industrial experiences and research background, Dennis applies and transfers technical knowledge to the benefit of plant operations and provides feedback from the real-world industrial processes to inspire and to involve in the development and deployment of new technologies for the ArcelorMittal blast furnaces. Dennis is a teacher in blast furnace ironmaking at ArcelorMittal University and an invited lecturer at the biannual McMaster University Blast Furnace Ironmaking Course.

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BIO of Koji Saito

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Koji Saito, Fellow, Research & Development, Nippon Steel Sumitomo Metal Corporation, holds M.S. and PhD degrees in Physical Chemistry from Nagoya Institute of Technology and Tohoku University, respectively. His career on iron making technology including coal characterization using NMR, coking process research, and blast furnace technology started in Yawata works of Nippon Steel Corporation in 1984. Then, he worked for a national project to develop a new cokes process, called SCOPE21 process in Japan, after he stayed at RWTH-Aachen University in Germany, as a visiting researcher, in order to develop in-situ NMR imaging system in 1997. He mainly clarified the mechanism of rapid heating effects using his original in-situ NMR imaging system in SCOPE21 projects. After this project, he started research management work as general manager of Iron making R&D division and also COURSE 50 projects as sub Project Leader. He was general manager in head of iron making technology division of Nippon Steel Sumitomo metal Corp. He was Project Leader of COURSE 50 until 2015. He has at least 100 papers and 70 patents.
<Winning a prize >
1993 Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists, Paper prize
1999 Japan Institute of Energy, Paper prize
2000 Iron and Steel Institute of Japan, Paper prize
2004 Japan Institute of Energy progressive prize (section of art and science)
2009 Iron and Steel Institute of Japan, Paper prize
2011 @Iron and Steel Institute of Japan, Shiraishi memorial Prize

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BIO of Hong Yong Sohn

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Hong Yong Sohn received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Seoul National University in Korea and his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering in 1970 from the University of California at Berkeley. After working as a Research Engineer at Du Pont’s Engineering Technology Laboratory, he started teaching at the University of Utah in 1974, currently holding the rank of Distinguished Professor.
Over his long career, Professor Sohn’s research interests have covered a wide range of subjects, such as Development of a Novel Flash Ironmaking; Plasma-Assisted Chemical Synthesis of Inorganic Nanomaterials; Metallurgical Process Engineering including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Modeling; Nonferrous metal production; and Synthesis and Processing of Ceramic and Intermetallic Compounds. He coauthored a seminal monograph in the field, “Gas-Solid Reactions,” which has been a standard reference on the subject for more than 40 years. Professor Sohn is currently rewriting the book with a new title of “Fluid-Solid Reactions” incorporating the massive amount of work he has continued on the topic. A major accomplishment by Professor Sohn in this field is the formulation of a rate law called “Sohn’s Law of Additive Reaction Times” that governs the reactions between solids and fluids that are affected by mass transfer processes.
Professor Sohn’s work has been recognized through various awards, which include the 2014 Educator Award from TMS; the Distinguished Scholarly and Creative Research Award, 2012 from the University of Utah; Billiton Gold Medal, 2012 from The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in the U.K.; the TMS 2009 Fellow Award “in recognition of outstanding contribution to the practice of metallurgical/materials science and technology” from The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS); the 2001 James Douglas Gold Medal Award (“for leadership and outstanding contributions in research and education of nonferrous extractive metallurgy and for work related to the modeling of gas-solid reactors and the development of novel solvent extraction systems”) from the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME); Fellow Award from the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, 1998; the TMS Champion H. Mathewson Gold Medal Award, 1993; the TMS Extractive Metallurgy Lecturer Award (1990 “in recognition as an outstanding scientific leader in the field of nonferrous extraction and processing metallurgy”); the TMS Extraction and Processing Science Award (1990, 1994, 1999 and 2007, respectively, for analysis of flash furnace shaft; modeling of in situ solution mining operations; synthesis of ultrafine particles of intermetallic compounds; and analysis of the influence of chemical equilibrium on fluid-solid reaction rates and the falsification of activation energy, making him the first four time winner of this award); the Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer (1983); and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Award (1977). In 2006, TMS honored Dr. Sohn by holding the “Sohn International Symposium on Advanced Processing of Metals and Materials”.
Among the numerous plenary and keynote lectures Professor Sohn has given, he delivered a talk on “Novel Ironmaking Technology with Low Energy Requirement and CO2 Emission” to the U.S. Congress on April 21, 2008. He has also served as a technical consultant to many industrial companies, government units, and research institutes. Dr. Sohn has authored or co-authored 4 monographs, 26 book chapters, 5 patents, some 570 papers, co-edited 17 books, and delivered some 240 invited lectures. He has also served as a Director of TMS-AIME.

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BIO of Tateo Usui

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Tateo Usui, 73, was graduated from Osaka University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Metallurgy, in March, 1969 and graduated from Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Department of Metallurgy, in March, 1974 and at the same time he got the degree of Doctor of Engineering from Osaka University. He started his career as Assistant Professor from April, 1974, in the same Department, Faculty of Engineering, Osaka University. He became full Professor in November, 1995. From 2007 till 2010, he invited “Nippon Steel Collaboration Laboratory on Ironmaking Process.” After his retirement from Osaka University in March, 2010, the title of Emeritus Professor of Osaka University was given to Prof. Usui. He started his second career as full Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Fukui University of Technology from April, 2010 till March, 2012. From April, 2012 till March, 2017, the title of Guest Professor in Joining and Welding Research Institute, Osaka University was given to Prof. Usui. He started his third career as Visiting Professor, School of Mines, Federal University of Ouro Preto, Brazil, from September, 2013 until now.
Over the span of 50 years, his research activities focused primarily on Ironmaking including reduction behavior and kinetic analyses of iron ore agglomerates (pellets and sinter), pre-reduction behavior of iron oxide pellets with coal carbonization gas for an Iron Bath Smelting Reduction Process and rate enhancement by using semi-char and semi-charcoal for carbon composite pellets; as well as experimental and thermodynamical or kinetic studies on environmental problems (CO2 and Dioxin emissions), refining of steel, elimination of tramp elements from used steel, and reduction of hydrocarbon volume in carburizing process of solid steel.
Prof. Usui was granted numerous prestigious awards for his outstanding research and academic activities such as Prize of JSME from JSME (The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers) in 1977; Nishiyama Commemorative Prize (Scientific Achievement Commemorative Prize) from ISIJ (The Iron and Steel Institute of Japan) in 1986; Gakujutsu Kouseki Prize (Scientific Achievement Merit Prize) from ISIJ in 2006, Tanigawa – Harris Prize for High Temperature Metal Processing from JIM (The Japan Institute of Metals and Materials) in 2011; Yamaoka Prize (Joint Research Prize for distinguished Group Research Activities) from ISIJ, 6 times, in 1986, 1993, 1995, 2003, and 2013 as a member and in 2007 as the chairman; Nishiyama Medal (Academic Prize) from ISIJ and Fray International Sustainability Award from FLOGEN Star OUTREACH in March and October, 2019, respectively. Most recently, Prof. Usui received the Iron and Steel Merit Award from ISIJ on “Fundamental Studies on Ironmaking and Steel Processing in Consideration of Resources and Environment” in March, 2020. In addition, he has held distinguished Chairman positions leading the research group in ISIJ on Iron Ore Sintering Process for Limonite Ore from 2000 till 2004, and heading the organizing and steering committees of 4th ICSTI (International Congress on the Science and Technology of Ironmaking) in 2006 and ISISD (International Symposium on Ironmaking for Sustainable Development) in 2010 - both were organized by ISIJ and co-organized by Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University. Especially, 4th ICSTI was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Currently, he is a Steering Committee Member for an Ironmaking Forum of High Temperature Process Division in ISIJ and an Advisory Board Member for “The Research and Development of Ironmaking Process Using Ferro-coke,” NEDO, Japan.

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