Topic: Use of Advanced Characterization Techniques for Materials Development in

　　　 Energy and Transportation 

Speaker: Dr. Ernie Hall

　　　　　Chief Scientist

　　　　　Chemical Technologies and Materials Characterization

　　　　　GE Global Research

　　　　　USA

Time:　9:30-10:30, Fri. Sep.4, 2009

Venue: Room 468, Lee Hsun Building, IMR CAS

 

 

 

The development of new high-performance materials for energy, aviation, transportation, and other businesses requires a detailed understanding of the correlation between structure, composition, processing, and properties. Increasingly, it is necessary to measure the structure and composition of materials at higher spatial resolution and with greater efficiency. Recent advances in techniques such as focused ion beam and electron backscatter diffraction in the scanning electron microscope, synchrotron x-ray and neutron diffraction, and surface analysis using electrons, x-rays, and ions have allowed much more information to become available to the materials scientist. In this talk, I will describe some applications of these techniques to characterize phase transformations, nanomaterials, coatings, residual stress/retained strain, and fatigue behavior.

 

 

BS     Massachusetts Institute of Technology  1973 Metallurgy and Materials Science

PhD    Massachusetts Institute of Technology  1977 Materials Science and Engineering

 

     Dr. Ernest L. Hall joined GE Global Research in 1979. He is presently Chief Scientist for Chemical Technologies and Materials Characterization, where he is responsible for shaping the technical vision and strategic technology direction of his organization and GE Global Research. From 1991 until 2008 he was manager of the Microstructural and Surface Science Laboratory, which provides capabilities for micro- and nano-scale imaging, surface analysis, x-ray diffraction and crystallography, nano-property measurement, and quantitative image analysis. His particular areas of expertise include the techniques and applications of analytical transmission electron microscopy in materials science. In his role as a technical contributor he has conducted microstructural investigations of a wide variety of different materials, including semiconductors, superconductors, and nickel and titanium-based alloys for aircraft engine and aerospace applications. In particular, his research has focused on the corrosion of stainless steel; the development of TiAl aviation alloys; and the role of grain boundary structure and chemistry in the fatigue behavior of superalloys.

 

     Ernie is author or co-author of over 175 technical publications, one book chapter, and has edited four books on the methods and applications of analytical electron microscopy and other advanced characterization methods in materials research. From 1984 to 1990 he served as an adjunct professor in the Materials Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to joining GE, he spent two years as a Research Associate/IBM Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT. 

 

     In 1984 Ernie was awarded the Alfred H. Geisler Award by the Eastern New York chapter of ASM for his metallurgical research and, in 1989, was named a Coolidge Fellow, the highest honor awarded by GE Global Research, for his outstanding and sustained research contributions. He has served as past chairman of the Hudson-Mohawk chapter of TMS, as national program vice-chair and chair for the Microscopy and Microanalysis annual meeting, on the editorial board of Metallurgical Transactions, as chair of GE's Teacher Industrial Fellowship program, and as coordinator of the both the Coolidge Fellows and the Lab Manager Council at GRC. He has served on the governing Boards of both the Microscopy Society of America and the Microbeam Analysis Society. 

 

     Ernie has also served on the scientific advisory board of the DOE-BES Shared Research Equipment (ShaRE) program at Oak Ridge National Lab, as an invited participant in the “Nanoscience Opportunities at NSLS-II” workshop at Brookhaven National Lab, and as session chair at the 2007 DOE-BES roadmap/grand challenges workshop on Future Science Needs and Opportunities for Electron Scattering. In 2008 he was asked to testify before the US Congress Committee on Science and Technology during hearings on ”The Foundations for Developing New Energy Technologies”.