Essential Industry Support and Interaction: 40 Years of the Center for Iron and Steelmaking Research

Prof. Chris Pistorius

2025-05-07

Abstract
The Center for Iron and Steelmaking Research (CISR) was started by Richard Fruehan at Carnegie Mellon University in 1985. Some research themes have waxed and waned during this period, but a constant has been the essential input of industry members in financially supporting the research, employing CISR graduates, providing research ideas, and critiquing our results and interpretations. Examples will be shown of how this interaction was essential to discovery and process improvements, including slag-based nitrogen removal from steel, automated inclusion analysis, and calcium modification of spinel inclusions. Data analysis tools and models are useful ways to transfer our results to industry.

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Biography
Petrus Christiaan (Chris) Pistorius is the POSCO Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Iron and Steelmaking Research in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on pyrometallurgy and solidification. Previously he was an associate professor (1991-1996) and professor (1997-2008) in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, University of Pretoria, South Africa, and served as the head of that department from May 2002 to June 2008. Chris has a Master’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Pretoria, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

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