IFHTSE member association KSHT has recently appointed Dr. Sang-Gweon Kim new President.

I am honored to step into the role of President for our federation. Our organization has a long history of connecting heat treaters and surface engineers from around the world through academic discussion, research collaborations, and industrial advancements in our field.
During the next two years, we will continue to expand opportunities for early career professionals at IFHTSE events, and we will promote collaboration and communication within the heat treating field through international conferences, symposia, and congresses.

Prof. Bojan Podgornik has been elected a new member of the EC. He is the head of the Metallic Materials Department at the Institute of Metals and Technology (IMT), Slovenia.

Professor Sabine Denis will receive the IFHTSE Medal, as decided by the Executive Committee. The Medal will be given during the awards ceremony of the 31st IFHTSE World Congress to be held in Cologne, Germany, 13-15 October, 2026. The citation reads: “For her lifetime achievements in numerical modelling of the interplay of temperature, phase transformations and residual stress in heat treatment, in particular the importance of deformation and transformation plasticity”

When you are planning or preparing a conference, read the guideline as a menu to pick items from for your preparation, planning, checklist, and agenda!

Awards for the best papers/presentations and invitations to participate for free are available!

My term is now coming to an end... I leave my position knowing that my successor will be up to the challenges that await IFHTSE, and I will continue to collaborate passionately to make my contribution.

At the beginning of 2026, I will assume the role of Treasurer of the IFHTSE. My 17 years of running the office of SVW, the Swiss member association of IFHTSE gave me extensive experience and solid expertise to care for a stable financial position of IFHTSE.

The call for papers for IFHTSE World Congress is out with deadlines, scope, programme outline, committees etc

Dr. Scott MacKenzie, IFHTSE President 2018-2019, gets the 2025 George H. Bodeen Heat Treating Achievement Award.

"It is a great honor to serve as your new vice president. I take on this role out of deep passion for our field and a commitment to advancing the collaboration that has defined IFHTSE since its founding in 1971. For decades, this federation has been a vital bridge connecting global professionals, and I am eager to carry forward its mission of knowledge sharing."
Prof. Jianfeng Gu is the Deputy President of IFHTSE’S member organization Chinese Heat Treatment Society (CHTS), a Professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), and the Director of Institute of Materials Modification and Modelling (IMMM) at SJTU.

IFHTSE invites researchers under 35 years of age to participate for free at the the IFHTSE World Congress next year!

Prof. Yueming Xu, Chairman of the Chinese Heat Treatment Society CHTS, was awarded the IFHTSE Fellowship for his research in the field of heat treatment, his continued support of international cooperation and exchange, his long-year service in the IFHTSE Executive Committee, and his authorship of and contribution to books and standards.

Dr. Yoichi Watanabe received the IFHTSE Fellowship during the 30th IFHTSE World Congress in Suzhou, China.
Dr. Yoichi Watanabe has achieved many useful results in his research on surface hardening heat treatment and quenching distortion. He has contributed to the success of the IFHTSE congress and conference as a committee member and speaker.

Nearly 500 experts from academia and industry attended the 30th IFHTSE World Congress in Suzhou, China.

During the 29th IFHTSE World Congress in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, Prof. Tadashi Furuhara of Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, received the IFHTSE Medal.

These awards went to Benjamin Dollhofer of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany and Mitchell Shields of Colorado School of Mines, USA.

During the IFHTSE World Congress 2024, held in Cleveland, Ohio, this award was given to Ellen K. Troyansky of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA.

The 5th International Conference on Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering in Automotive and Transportation Applications will be held in Prague June 4-6, 2025, combined with the European Conference on Heat Treatment. Submit your abstract today!

Leading expert on computer simulation of heat treatment processes passed away

The deadline for abstracts for QDE has been extended to October 04, 2024. Submit abstracts: https://www.asminternational.org/qde2025/

The Medal of Civic Merit of the Mexican state of Nuovo León was awarded to our Executive Committee member Prof. Colás by the state governor. Colás was honoured for his work on Technological Development through his post as Professor at Facultad de Ingeniería Mecánica y Eléctrica of Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León in collaboration with metal processing companies located in Northeast Mexico and institutions in Europe and the Americas.

After the 25th World Congress held in Xi'an 2018, the IFHTSE World Congress is coming back to China. The 30th IFHTSE World Congress will take place in Suzhou – China from 19 - 22 August 2025.

The 'International Conference on Quenching and Control of Distortion' is a series merged from the two of 'Quenching and Control of Distortion' and 'Int'l Conf. on Distortion Engineering'. In 2025, the third QDE will be held in Vancouver, Canada, from Tuesday, May 06 to Thursday, May 08. The event will co-locate with AeroMat 2025, AeroTech 2025 and the International Thermal Spray Conference and Exposition (ITSC) 2025.

Our American member association ASM presents the latest volume in the ASM Handbook series on heat treatment. Volume 4F is a practical guide to quenching, its implementation, and its effects on the microstructure and properties of cast irons and steels.

Alessandra Palombi from the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” was given the award at the 4th Mediterranean Conference on Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering, held in Lecce, Italy, in combination with the 5th International Conference on Thermal Process Modeling and Simulation.

Prof. Bojan Podgornik, head of the Materials and Technology department at the Institute of Metals and Technology and Professor at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, will hold the opening lecture on “Self-lubricating surfaces for hot forming of light-weight alloys“. In this conference, he will also be awarded the IFHTSE Fellowship.

The opening lecture of the 5th International Conference on Thermal Process Modeling and Simulation will be held by Prof. Imre Felde of the Obuda University, of Budapest, Hungary. He will be speaking about “Physics-informed neural networks for heat treatment operations“. Prof. Felde is the treasurer of IFHTSE.

The new President addresses the events and tasks in the near future

From Yokohama to Paris: Laudation for IFHTSE Medalist Professor Michel Jeandin during the last council meeting of A3TS, the French member association of IFHTSE

Prof. Bojan Podgornik is head of the Materials and Technology department at the Institute of Metals and Technology and Professor at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Award citation reads: ”IN RECOGNITION OF HIS SIGNIFICANT RESEARCH WORK, KNOWLEDGE CONTRIBUTION AND INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITY IN THE FIELD OF HEAT TREATMENT AND SURFACE ENGINEERING, FOCUSED ON DEEP CRYOGENIC TREATMENT, SUBSTRATE MULTI-PROPERTIES APPROACH AND HARD COATINGS INTERACTIONS”. The Award ceremony will be on the occasion of the combined IFHTSE conferences in Lecce, Italy, Wednesday, April 17, 2024 - Friday, April 19, 2024.

Dr. Patrick Jacquot was IFHTSE President 2016-2017 and served in the Executive Committee of IFHTSE for 15 years. He is a renowned expert of surface engieneering and was a leader in the central laboratory of the Bodycote Group. The citation of the award reads: ”IN RECOGNITION OF HIS EXTENSIVE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF NEW HEAT TREATMENT AND SURFACE ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGIES AND HIS LONG-TIME SERVICE TO IFHTSE INCLUDING HIS PRESIDENCY” The Award ceremony will be on the occasion of the combined IFHTSE conferences in Lecce, Italy, Wednesday, April 17, 2024 - Friday, April 19, 2024.

At the AWT board meeting on February 7, 2024, Dr. Thomas Waldenmaier of Robert Bosch GmbH was elected by the board members as the new chairman of AWT. We congratulate Dr. Waldenmaier and, on behalf of IFHTSE, wish him much success as head of AWT, a prestigious member of our Federation.

The citation reads: “For his life-time achievement in the physical metallurgy of diffusional and displacive phase transformations in steels and titanium alloys and advanced microstructure characterization with electron microscopy techniques.” The award ceremony will be on the occasion of the 29th IFHTSE World Congress on September 30, 2024 in Cleveland OH, USA.

Prof. Dr. Fechte-Heinen is Chairman of the Board of Directors of our member institute Leibniz - IWT in Bremen, Germany, and is professor of materials technology at the University of Bremen. He studied mechanical engineering in Bochum, Seville, and Berkeley. Subsequently he took his Ph.D. in Bochum and became a honorary professor there. For 13 years he held various R&D positions at thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG, and in 2020 he took his position at IWT in succession of IFHTSE Fellow and former IFHTSE President Hans-Werner Zoch. IWT was a seedbed for the formation of our Federation. From the fifties of the past century on, IWT initiated meetings and cooperations which led to the founding of IFHTSE in 1972.

He was born in 1978, in Colmar, Alsace, France. He received his M.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany (2003) and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts & Métiers, France (2003). He has been operating in steel development and steel production since 2003 in the niche field of long special steels. His field of research is mainly linked to the reduction of carbon footprint of the value chain toward development of new solutions. Since 2016, he is the technical responsible of the R&D Centre of the Italian steel maker ABS (Acciaierie Bertoli Safau), which is based in a French Material Valley specialized in steel. He is an active member of the French Heat Treatment Association, A3TS, since 2016, first as member of the Technical Committee and since 2018 as member of the EC of A3TS.

Lesley Frame is Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Director of the Center for Materials Processing Data at the University of Connecticut. Prior to joining UConn faculty in 2018, Dr. Frame spent many years in the tube and pipe industry at Thermatool Corp. Her current research is focused on materials manufacturing processes, residual stress formation, corrosion, and transient materials properties. She is actively involved in ASM International, she is past-President of the Heat Treating Society, and she is the 2024-2025 Vice President for IFHTSE. Subsequently, she will be President for another two years.