Prof. Xinhua Wang 

Presentation Title: Investigation on Large-Sized Non-Metallic Inclusions in Ultra-Low Oxygen Special Steels

Mr. Xinhua Wang is a worldwide well-known expert in field of steel technology. He graduated from the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB), after which he worked for about 5 years as the technician at Laiwu Steel Co. From 1980 to 1986, he did his graduate study at USTB and received the degree of Ma. Sci. and PhD in 1983 and 1986, respectively. Since then, he has worked at USTB as the lecturer, associate professor, professor, head of the R&D Office of the University, dean of the School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering of USTB. Currently, he works as the Professor Emeritus at USTB, the adjunct professor at the Northeast University, the expert of Shougang Co., Ansteel Co., Hansteel Co., etc., respectively. Also, he is the member of the Standing Board of the Chinese Society for Metals (CSM) and head of Steelmaking Commission of CSM. 

Prof. In-Ho Jung 

Presentation Title: Application of Thermodynamic database to the steelmaking process simulations

Professor In-Ho Jung is a world-renowned expert in chemical metallurgy and thermodynamic database development. He earned his bachelor and master’s degree from POSTECH, South Korea, and PhD degree from Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada in 2003. He is a co-developer of FactSage thermodynamic software, which is accessed by more than 1000 sites around the world, and academic member of FIRE (Federation of International Refractory Research and Education). He worked for McGill University, Canada as an assistant and associate professor for 10 years, and is currently a professor at Seoul National University, South Korea. Since 2009, Prof. Jung has led the “FactSage Steelmaking Consortium Project” to develop thermodynamic databases and process simulation models for steelmaking industry, sponsored by 13 companies around the world. He has authored and co-authored 6 book chapters, 20 patents and more than 250 journal papers, and 120 conference proceeding papers. Prof. Jung received various awards including 2012 NSERC Leo Derikx Synergy Award, Canada, and 2013 Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Magnesium Research Award, Germany. He is also a recipient of 2022 AIST John F Elliott Lectureship award.

Prof. Miaoyong Zhu

Presentation Title: Evolution and Control of Non-metallic Inclusions in Steel During Secondary Refining Process

Dr. Miaoyong Zhu is currently Professor and Chairman of Academic Committee, School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University (NEU), Shenyang, China, and he is also the deputy director of Steelmaking and Continuous Casting Committee, The Chinese Society for Metal (CSM). He has conducted research primarily in the field of clean steelmaking and continuous casting processes with emphasis on the simulations and controls of non-metallic inclusion behavior during steel refining and solidification phenomena of continuous casting. Dr. Zhu has made co-authored over 150 patents and 500 publications in the steelmaking field and edited 10 books. Dr. Zhu is the winner of National Outstanding Young Scientists Foundation, China and He got the “Wei Shoukun Science Technology and Education Prize” for Young Metallurgist in 2012 and National Award for Science and Technology Progress in 2021.

Prof. Jianhua Liu

Presentation Title: Removal of inclusion by fine bubbles in molten steel

Prof. Jianhua Liu is the director of Center of Low Carbon Metallurgy (CLCM) in the institute of Engineering Technology of USTB, and he serves as a member of Metallurgical Solid Waste Comprehensive Utilization Committee of China Metallurgical Society. He has been a visiting scholar in McGill University, Latrobe University, RWTH Aachen University, and the University of Leoben. He leads a research group that specializes in bubble metallurgy, intelligent steelmaking, and hydrogen application in steelmaking, and he has undertaken nearly 50 projects, including the National Key Research and Development Program and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. His research group has successfully developed a series of technologies for inclusion removal with fine bubbles, such as nitrogen elevating and reducing method (NERM), argon injection at ladle shroud (AILS), argon injection at the down-leg snorkel with RH (AIDSRH), etc., in which fine bubbles have been successfully picked up in molten steel by the innovative methods of cold steel sheet sampling and rapid solidification, respectively. The relevant studies have promoted the rapid development of bubble metallurgy. Recently, he is committed to the technical development of hydrogen application in steelmaking and refining, which will be helpful to carbon reduction in steelmaking process. He has granted around 30 patents and published around 300 technical articles.

Prof. Lifeng Zhang

Presentation Title: Fundamentals and Industrial Practices for the Control of Non-metallic Inclusions in Steels

Lifeng Zhang, professor and president of North China University of Technology. He is the distinguished professor of “Changjiang Scholars" of the ministry of education China, winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, the national “ten thousand people plan” innovation leading talent, young and middle-aged leading talent in science and technology innovation of the ministry of science and technology China, the leader of National Huang Danian-style teaching teams of the Ministry of Education. His main research fields are high-quality steel, non-metallic inclusions in steel, simulation of transfer phenomena in metallurgical process. He successively presided over more than 70 scientific research projects, including national, provincial projects and National Defense Science and Technology Project. The total amount of scientific research funds is more than 100 million yuan. At present, over 400 papers retrieved by SCI or EI and three monographs have been published,. Besides, 3 international patent, 40 Chinese patents and 10 software patents have been obtained. He has won many awards, such as Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Award Youth Award, Wei Shoukun Metallurgical Youth Award, AISI Richard J. Fruehan Award, Distinguished Visiting Scholar of Royal Academy of Engineering, etc.

Prof. Jian Yang

Presentation Title: Progress on Oxide Metallurgy Technology

Prof Jian Yang is currently a professor at Shanghai University. He is also the director of Department of Materials Engineering, and vice director of State Key Laboratory of Advanced Special Steel in School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University.He leads the Research Team of Ironmaking and Steelmaking New Technology in Shanghai University that specializes in the steelmaking, continuous casting, inclusion control, oxide metallurgy and artificial intelligence metallurgy. He has published 391 Journal and Conference Papers, 36 Chinese patents and 7 international patents. In 2002 and 2007, he was awarded the SAWAMURA Best Paper Award of ISIJ International for two times. In 2015, he was awarded the Nishiyama Commemorative Prize of ISIJ.

Prof. Olena Volkova

Presentation Title: Gas atomization of low-density Fe-Cr-Ni-Mn-Al Stainless Steels

Since October 2015, Prof. Olena Volkova is the director of Institute of Iron and Steel Technology, TU Bergakademie Freiberg (Germany). Current research topics at the Institute of Iron and Steel Technology are in particular the research on thermophysical properties such as viscosity, density, surface tension, heat conductivity, flow behavior of molten slags; thermophysical properties of molten steels; atomization of molten steels; the development of steels and composite powders for additive manufacturing, steel design, direct reduction of iron ores with hydrogen for the decarbonisation of steel production, steel and slag recycling, decopperisation, VOx vaporization. The institute collaborates actively with industrial partners including thyssenkrupp steel europe AG, Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung GmbH, BMW AG, ArcelorMittal Eisenhüttenstadt GmbH, Georgsmarienhütte GmbH, Riva Stahl GmbH, ESF Elbe-Stahlwerke Feralpi GmbH. In last 7 years, Prof. Volkova has granted 1 patent and published around 100 research articles.

Prof. Joohyun Park

Presentation Title: High temperature physical chemistry of secondary refining slags for producing clean steels

Prof. Joohyun Park is the director of the Laboratory for the High Temperature Physicochemical Processing of Materials (HiTeP2), Department of Materials Scienceand Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, Korea. He was a senior research scientist in the Technical Research Laboratories, POSCO, for 7 years and nowperforming research focusing on i) inclusion science and engineering, ii) slag scienceand technology, iii) sustainable ferrous- and non-ferrous metallurgy for carbon neutralsociety, etc. He has been an Affiliated Professor in KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and a Guest Professor in USTB. He was selected as a recipient of the Iron- and Steelmaking Technology Award (2005) and Best Patent Award (2006) by POSCO; the Best Young Scientist Award (2012) and Chungwoong Award (2021) by Korea Institute of Metals and Materials; the Marcus Grossmann Young Author Award (2014), TMS-EPD Science Award (2020), and Key Reader Award (2021) by TMS; the Sawamura Award (2017) by Iron & Steel Institute of Japan; the Minister Award (2021) by Korean Government (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, MOTIE). He has granted about 30 (International and Korean) patents and published 350 peer-reviewed articles with 310 conference presentations.

Prof. Govind S. Gupta

Presentation Title: Modelling of two-phase emulsion behaviour

Presentation Title: Last line of defense for inclusion control and cleaner steel based on fundamentals of chemical metallurgy

Prof. Il Sohn is the Director of the Research Institute of Iron and Steel Technology (RIIST) at Yonsei University. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea and currently serves as the Editor of Metallurgical and Materials Transactions and Associate Editor of Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy. He has published over 130 SCI(E) peer-reviewed articles in renown journals, over 20 intellectual properties, and is the author of several books regarding iron and steelmaking research. He has worked as an engineer within the petrochemical and steelmaking companies including LG-Caltex and U.S. Steel providing both industrial and academic insights to a broad range of topics including steels. He worked as a special project professor at The University of Tokyo and Central South University working on topics of green steelmaking, continuous casting, and clean steels. His research group specializes in the development of high aluminum steel mold fluxes, inclusion control in steelmaking, and green iron- and steelmaking based on thermodynamics and kinetics in the field of chemical metallurgy. He has undertaken more than 80 industrial and national projects sponsored by POSCO, Hyundai Motors, DB Metals, RIST, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Science and ICT and others. Through his industry and academic experience of more than 20 years, Prof. Sohn has distinguished himself to be one of the leaders for innovative and far-reaching expert in green iron and steelmaking research and education.

Prof. Yanping Bao

Presentation Title: Advanced steelmaking technology based on clean deoxidation methods

Prof. Yanping Bao is currently a professor at University of Science and Technology Beijing. He is also the academic leader in the steelmaking direction of State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy. He leads a research group that specializes in the production technology of clean steel and inclusion control, reduction control technology of steel alloy, gradient utilization technology of steelmaking slag and advanced technology of continuous casting. He also serves as the chief editor of the Journal of Continuous Casting, and is an editorial board member of many academic journals, such as IJMMM, etc. Prof. Bao has made co-authored over 80 patents and 500 publications in the steelmaking field and edited 8 books. Prof. Bao won the National Science and Technology Progress for 1 time and Metallurgical Science and Technology Progress Award for 10 times. In 2012, he also won the "Willy Korf Outstanding Education Award" set by the United States and Germany Joint Fund Committee.

Dr. Yuyou Zhai

Presentation Title: TPO – An Enabler for better Quality and Higher Performance

Dr. Yuyou Zhai joined Primetals Technologies, former Siemens VAI, 1994 and he currently leads the business segment TPO (Through Process Optimization) of the company, based in Linz, Austria. After graduating from University Science and Technology of Beijing, Dr. Zhai went to Germany 1985 and received his Diploma and Dr. Degree in Metallurgy from RWTH Aachen, Germany. His PH.D. These is about Plasma Metallurgy to produce clean steel for special applications. Dr. Zhai contributed to the steelmaking process model development within the company and holds several patents.  To speak customer’s languages and to provide solutions to relieve customer’s pain points, he is now leading the department DT TPO of Primetals with focus on data based through process optimization to support Digital Transformation journey of customers and to achieve performance excellence. As a steelmaking expert, He is also recognized as a results oriented senior manager with proven track record of product development and business initiatives with customer centric focus during his activities in different positions and locations of the company.  

Dr. Zhigang Ma

Presentation Title: Development and application of one-key refining technology for Baosteel's precision RH

Dr. Zhigang Ma is currently the chief engineer and technical expert of Bao Steel. He mainly engages in steelmaking and refining technology and the quality optimization of steels. His research work focuses on oxygen controlling in inclusion controlling of high-grade pipeline steel, refining of high-strength automobile sheet, process optimization of axle steel, technological development of silicium steel, high efficiency of refining treatment, and technological improvement of refining equipment. Dr. Ma has been awarded 9 significant achievements in technological innovation by Bao Steel and granted 128 technical secrets and 34 patents. He has published 40 peer-reviewed journal and conference proceeding papers. 

Prof. Zhengliang Xue

Presentation Title:  To be determined

Zhengliang Xue is currently a professor at Wuhan University of Science and Technology. His research interest includes steel cleanness, special steel and recycling of solid waste. He is currently a member of the Bearing Steel Academic Committee of the Special Steel Branch of the Chinese Society of Metals, a member of the Steel Quality and Nonmetallic Inclusion Control Professional Committee of the Steelmaking Branch of the Chinese Society of Metals, and a winner of the Baosteel Excellent Teacher Award. He studied his PhD at metallurgical engineering in Iron and Steel Research Institute of China and then did a postdoctoral at the Materials Science and Engineering. He has successively completed some projects from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, "973" project and "863" project. He has published three academic books, and more than 150 academic papers in domestic and foreign academic journals got more than 10 invention patents.

Prof. Guangqiang Li

Presentation Title: Microstructure optimization and strengthening and toughening mechanism of rare earth Ce/La on weld metal of ultra-low temperature high manganese steel

Guangqiang Li is  a professor of Wuhan University of Science and Technology (WUST), China, is the Deputy Director of the State Kay Lab. of Refractories & Metallurgy and the Director of the Key Lab. for Ferrous Metallurgy and Resources Utilization, Ministry of Education, China. He is a supervisor for PhD and Master degree students.He got his Doctor of Engineering degree from Tohoku University, in Sendai, Japan, 1997. He got his Master and Bachelor degrees from Northeastern University of Technology, Shenyang, China, in 1988 and 1985, respectively.His research interests are (1) Physical chemistry on steel refining and materials processing, (2) Recycle of metals and metallurgical wastes. The name of his Lab is “Lab of Metallurgical Processes & Energy Conversion Materials”. At present, there are 7 professors, 4 associate professors, 2 lecturers, 1 postdoctoral fellow, and more than 40 doctoral and postgraduate students in his research group.He published more than 300 SCI papers, one book and three chapters respectively in three books.

The current research topics are: Clean steel refining, inclusion control and steel strengthening and toughening; Numerical simulation of metallurgical processes and materials processing; Recycling of metallurgical wastes; Energy conversion materials and systems.

Dr. Xinmei Hou

Presentation Title: Performance evaluation and application of refractories applied in clean steels

Dr. Xinmei Hou is currently Professor and Associate Dean of Institute for Carbon Neutrality, University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB), Beijing, China. She has conducted research primarily in the field of design and application of auxiliary materials for green and low carbon smelting with emphasis on the test device and kinetic theory for high-temperature interface reaction. Dr. Hou has made co-authored over 30 patents and 230 publications, edited 3 books and issued 5 national standard. Dr. Hou is the winner of National Outstanding Young Scientists Foundation, China and she got the Youth Science and Technology Award of Metallurgy in 2019 together with two Awards of Ministry of Education in 2020 and 2022. Dr. Hou has been invited to become the associate editor of Ceramics International and editorial board for multiple journals. 

Prof. Menghuai Wu

Presentation Title: Understanding nonmetallic inclusion behavior in SEN clogging – a modelling approach

Prof. Dr. -Ing Menghuai Wu, University of Leoben, has the research background of numerical modeling and simulation of solidification and relavant metallurgical processes. He did his Master study at Northwestern Polytechnical University in China, Ph.D at RWTH Aachen in Germany, and Habilitation at the University of Leoben, and became the head of Christian Doppler Laboratory for “Advanced Process Simulation of Solidification and Melting” at the same university in 2010. He has coordinated/led/participated many national, EU and international research projects, and collaborated with the steel industries (Primetals, Voestalpine, INTECO, RHI Magnesita, etc.) and got their supports. The multiphase solidification models as developed by him and colleagues have been broadly applied to CC, Semi-CC, ingot, ESR/VAR, etc. In the year 2010, he is honored by Austrian government (Styria) for the “Research Prize for Simulation and Modeling, 1st class”, which is only awarded to one person each year. He authored and co-authored 380 papers with h-index 32.

Dr. Hiroyuki MATSUURA

Presentation Title: Comprehensive study for elucidation and control of non-metallic inclusions and steel microstructure through secondary refining, casting, and mechanical processing

Dr. Hiroyuki MATSUURA is an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo. He has put major effort into the fundamental understanding of physical chemistry in pyrometallurgical phenomena, mainly focusing on hot metal pretreatment, BOF, and secondary refining in ferrous manufacturing. One of his significant achievements is the elucidation of non-metallic inclusion in various steelmaking processes, such as the inclusion formation in deoxidation reaction and the modification of inclusion in molten steel during secondary refining, secondary precipitation during solidification of molten steel, and the further evolution of inclusion accompanied with the microstructure change during reheating process. He has made more than 120 publications and 100 international conference presentations. Currently, he serves as an Editorial Board of the Journal of Iron and Steel Research International, an Associate Editor of Tetsu-to-Hagané and ISIJ International, and a Key Reader of Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B.

Prof. Liguang Zhu

Presentation Title: Micro-alloying Theory and Its Recent Advances Based on Oxide Metallurgy

Zhu Liguang, a professor and a doctoral supervisor, is the Secretary of the CPC Committee of Hebei University of Science and Technology. He has long been engaged in research on quality control over smelting, continuous casting and billets of clean steel, and oxide metallurgy. Included in the national-level "Hundred, Thousand and Ten Thousand Talent Project in the New Century" of China, Professor Zhu has been awarded the title of "Excellent Talent of the New Century" by the Ministry of Education of China, and is now one of the "Outstanding Experts under Direct Management of the Government of Hebei Province", the "Top-Notch Professional and Technical Talents of Hebei Province", the "Outstanding Young and Middle-Aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions of Hebei Province", the "Top-Level Talents of the 333 Talents Project of Hebei Province", and the "Famous Teachers of Hebei Province". He enjoys a special allowance from the State Council of China. He also serves as Member of the Metallurgical Artificial Intelligence Academic Board of the Chinese Society for Metals, Vice President of the Hebei Society for Metals, and member of the editorial boards of the "Iron and Steel", "Steelmaking", "Continuous Casting" and "China Metallurgy" magazines.

Professor Zhu has undertaken more than 50 scientific and technological research projects at the national, provincial and large and medium-sized enterprise levels, with 20 scientific research achievements passing provincial and ministerial appraisals and 11 achievements honored by the Hebei Provincial Science and Technology Progress Awards. Among the achievements honored by the provincial awards, 5 won the first prizes, and 6 won the second or third prizes. The first-prize research projects include: "Development and Application of Key Technologies for Hulls Welded Using High Heat Input Based on Oxide Metallurgy", "High-Speed Continuous Casting Solidification and Control Technology", "Innovation in Production Process of Cold-Rolled Base Materials Using 100-Ton Converter Process", "Key Technologies for Purification and Flawless Solidification of Steel", and "Innovation in Mass Production Technology for Ultra-Thin Specification Hot-Rolled Sheet Coils on Sheet Billet Continuous Casting and Rolling Production Lines". The projects that have won the second or third prizes include: "Development of Short-Process, High-Carbon Content Steel Production Processes for FTSR Sheet Billets", "Development and Application of Variety Steel Smelting and Continuous Casting Technology in Converter Steelworks", "Research on Solidification Characteristics and Casting Mold Optimization of High-Speed Continuous Casting", "Development of Continuous Casting Series Casting Powder", "Research on Wear Behaviors and Prediction Systems of Sheet Billet Continuous Casting and Rolling Rolls" and "Innovation and Application of One-Button Automatic Steelmaking Technology for Small and Medium-Sized Converters". He has received multiple provincial-level prizes for his teaching achievements, including two first prizes, one second prize, and one third prize. In addition, Professor Zhu has published over 300 papers and 5 works, and has been granted over 30 patents.

Prof. Jinshu Wang

Presentation Title: Functional reconstruction of active components of steel slag

Dr. Jinshu Wang is a professor and doctoral supervisor of the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, majoring in materials science. She is mainly engaged in the research of electron emission materials, energy materials and materials for pollution control. A number of research achievements have been widely cited and praised by international peer experts. She was awarded the Distinguished Professor of Chang Jiang Scholars Program by the Ministry of Education, China in 2015. She received National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2012. She got China Youth Science and Technology Award, Mao Yisheng Science and Technology Award-Beijing Youth ect. She has been selected into the National Hundred Thousand Talents Project, has made outstanding contributions to young and middle-aged experts, and received special government allowances from the State Council. She has won National, provincial and ministerial science and Technology awards. Prof. Wang is the author of over 300 peer reviewed journal (ACS Nano, Adv. Funct. Mater., Appl. Catal. B :Environ., ect.) papers and 2 books.

Prof. Youn-Bae Kang

Presentation Title: Understanding Behavior of Ti in Ultra-Low C Liquid Steel

Mr. Geunho Park

Presentation Title: Development of ladle furnace automation system