Annika Borgenstam
Professor of Physical Metallurgy
Improving or producing new materials requires an understanding of the connection between performance, properties, internal structure and the production process. You need to know how to produce a certain structure that has specific properties, but also what happens to the structure when that material is used. Currently there is much talk about the materials genome and contracting the time it takes to develop a new material from 10–20 years to 3–4 years. Consequently, the ability to predict the structure using various types of calculations and simulations is critical.
Annika Borgenstam's work involves the structure of metallic materials at the nano and micro level, with a focus on understanding how a certain structure arises and how it can be modified. The emphasis is on the theoretical and experimental analysis of these structural changes, with a specific focus on the link between thermodynamic and kinetic properties and transformation mechanisms. This most important aim is to produce models describing how structures are formed that can be used to design new materials or improve existing materials. Even if the focus is on models, it is necessary to work experimentally in order to better understand the transformations that will be described and to verify models that have been developed.