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“Materials recovery and recycling is the only path to resource and environmental sustainability as well as energy conservation for the manufacturing business. We help our industry partners become more competitive by developing viable recycling technologies.”
Brajendra Mishra
Kenneth G. Merriam Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Director, Metal Processing Institute
Director, CR3
Head, Materials & Manufacturing Engineering
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
1-508-831-5711
bmishra@wpi.edu
Prof. Brajendra Mishra is an internationally known researcher and educator in metallurgical and materials science and engineering, Mishra is currently engaged in work focused on environmental management through the development of chemically benign processes and the development of materials with enhanced properties. His research over the past 25 years has been supported by more than $40 million in sponsored awards from multiple federal agencies, national laboratories, and industry. He is the author of more than 600 publications, including more than 280 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He has also edited 18 books and written seven chapters on chemical processing and extractive metallurgy.
He served as a trustee of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) from 2007 to 2012 and its president in 2011. He was president of TMS (the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society) in 2006. His scholarship and leadership has been honored with a number of awards, including Honorary Membership, the highest award bestowed by the Indian Institute of Metals; the Alexander Scott Distinguished Service Award from TMS; Honorary Professor of Kazakh National Technical University and the Presidential Citation from AIME.
Corby Anderson
Harrison-Western Professor, Metallurgical & Materials Engineering
Associate Director of CR3
Colorado School of Mines
303-273-3580
cganders@mines.edu
Prof. Corby Anderson has over 36 years of global experience in industrial operations, management, engineering, design, consulting, teaching, research and professional service. He is a native of Butte, America. His career includes positions with Morton Thiokol, Key Tronic Corporation, Sunshine Mining and Refining Company, H. A Simons Ltd. and at Montana Tech. He holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Montana State University and an MSc from Montana Tech and PhD from the University of Idaho in Metallurgical Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. He holds 10 international patents covering 6 innovative new technologies along with 5 new patent applications. He currently serves as the Harrison Western Professor in the Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy as part of the George S. Ansell Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. In 2009 he was honored by SME with the Milton E. Wadsworth Extractive Metallurgy Award for his contributions in hydrometallurgical research. In 2015 he was awarded the International Precious Metals Institute’s Tanaka Distinguished Achievement Award. In 2016 he will receive the Distinguished Member Award from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration.
Yiannis Pontikes
Department of Materials Engineering
Associate Director of CR3
KU Leuven
+1-32-16-320392
yiannis.pontikes@kuleuven.be
Prof. Yiannis Pontikes is an associate professor at the Department of Materials Engineering, KU Leuven, Belgium. Yiannis enjoys problem-driven, science-deep research, and is leading the Secondary Resources for Engineered Material (SREMat) research group, that consists of approximately 15 PhD candidates and post-doctoral researchers. SREMat has built an expertise on the utilization of residues towards ceramic, cement and inorganic polymer (geopolymer) formulations, from the level of binder synthesis all the way to full-scale prototypes. The scientific output of SREMat from 2013 onwards exceeds 10 peer-reviewed journal papers a year. At present, Yiannis is work package leader or project coordinator in 12 national and international projects and participates in different fora and networks. In 2015, Yiannis was one of the founders of the Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy, published by Springer, where he serves as the managing editor.
Bart Blanpain
Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering
KU Leuven
+1-32-16-321216
bart.blanpain@mtm.kuleuven.be
Prof. Bart Blanpain is head of Sustainable Metals Processing and Recycling at KU Leuven and is a full time professor in the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering (MTM). His research focus is on thermodynamics in materials engineering. He is a member of the Division of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering
Valérie Cappuyns
Department of ECON-CEDON, Brussels Campus
KU Leuven
valerie.cappuyns@kuleuven.be
Prof. Valérie Cappuyns obtained a Master degree in Bio-science Engineering in 2000, and a PhD degree in Geology in 2004 at KU Leuven (Belgium), where she was a post-doctoral researcher until 2006. After working for one year as a junior researcher at the Scientific Institute for Public Health, she returned to KU Leuven, where she is currently working as professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business. She teaches several courses in the field of environmental sciences in the Environmental Health and Safety Management bachelor and master program. Research interests include environmental geochemistry (chemical and mineralogical characterization of (heavy metal) contaminated waste materials, soils, and sediments), and sustainable management of contaminated sites. She is the (co)author of more than 70 publications in international peer-reviewed journals.
Jaeheon Lee
Associate Professor
Mining Engineering Department
Colorado School of Mines
303-384-2132
jaeheonlee@mines.edu
Prof. Jaeheon Lee is a metallurgical and materials engineer with over 20 years of academic and industrial experience His expertise is ore characterization, sulfide treatment and biohydrometallurgy. He holds a BS and MS in Metallurgical Engineering from Korea University and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Arizona. He was an associate professor in the department of Mining and Geological Engineering at the University of Arizona from 2014 to 2022 and is an associate professor presently in the Department of Mining Engineering at Colorado School of Mines. He is a co-founder of Auxilium Technology Group working on tailing reprocessing and recycling valuable metals and minerals.
Adam C. Powell, IV
Associate Professor
Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
508-831-6898
acpowell@wpi.edu
Adam C. Powell, IV is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical & Materials Engineering department who joined the WPI faculty in August 2018. His field is materials processing, and research focuses on greenhouse gas emissions reduction, elimination, and drawdown. Current projects aim to reduce vehicle body weight, lower solar cell manufacturing energy use and cost with improved safety, reduce or eliminate aviation greenhouse gas impact, power ships and trains with zero emissions, and improve grid stability as we drive toward 100% renewables. The primary tool for achieving these goals is mathematical modeling of metal processes, particularly electrochemical processes, validated by key experiments.
Powell’s research has resulted in 17 patents and 72 publications across materials classes: metal extraction/refining and product development, thin films, ceramic coatings, polymer membranes, batteries, and electromagnetic propulsion. He is the author of nine open source computational tools in materials processing, microstructure and thermodynamics modeling.
D. Erik Spiller
Research Professor
Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy
Colorado School of Mines
303.882.2682
espiller@mines.edu
Prof. Erik Spiller has more than 45 years of experience managing research, process development, technology, engineering, sales, and operations in the metallic recycling and minerals industries as well as for the industrial and energy minerals markets. He has been associated with the Colorado School of Mines through lecturing and conducting short courses for more than 30 years. For the past 12 years, he has been an appointed Research Professor concurrent with working as a Vice President (process metallurgy) for Tetra Tech, a world-class engineering company. He contributes particular technical expertise in processing from liberation via crushing, grinding, shredding, etc., through separations using various physico-chemical techniques based on particle attributes such as size, specific gravity, flotation, conductivity, magnetic susceptibility, leaching and liquid/solid separation. He is a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines and is QP certified through SME and the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America. Additionally Erik is a distinguished member of SME, and recipient of the AIME-SME prestigious Richards Award for his work in Mineral Processing.
Yan Wang
Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
508-831-5453
yanwang@wpi.edu
Prof. Yan Wang is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering at WPI. He studied electrochemistry at Tianjin University, China, where he received both his undergraduate and Master degrees. His Master thesis was on cathode materials for Ni/MH batteries. His doctoral thesis was in the group of Derek O. Northwood at University of Windsor, Canada. His research focused on the study of the fundamental corrosion mechanism of metallic bipolar plates for PEM fuel cells. As a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Yet-Ming Chiang at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he studied ultra-high energy density microbatteries, which was funded by DARPA.
Since 2010 he has been on the mechanical faculty at WPI and is now affiliated in Chemical Engineering, where he investigates disruptive technologies to produce metals and next generation of batteries. His primary research focus is in the field of fundamental electrochemistry and electrochemistry-based technologies, including electrolysis, lithium ion batteries, solid electrolyte and battery recycling
He has published ~50 peer-reviewed papers, two book chapters, applied five patents and co-founded Battery Resourcers LLC and AM Batteries LLC. He has been a regular reviewer for over 10 journals and has been the panel reviewer for National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy, Mass Cleantech Innovations, Louisiana EPSCoR, and Oak Ridge Associated Universities (OARU).