The True Test Of One's Metallurgy
The Age
Saturday August 9, 2003
Adrian Grosvenor is completing a PhD in materials engineering. He speaks to John Grandfield from the CSIRO manufacturing and infrastructure technology division.
ADRIAN: I've always had an urge to understand why and how things work. My grandfather and uncle are both engineers; I'd visit their factory as a kid and be impressed by all these big, amazing machines. I studied a lot of science at school and thought engineering at university sounded right for me. My first year in the combined science/engineering degree at Monash University gave me a broad understanding of different areas of engineering and I ended up studying materials science and materials engineering. These days studying metallurgy is part of studying materials, which also covers the study of polymers, ceramics and composites. I just finished five years in the Bachelor of science and engineering (with honours) and was deciding on whether to work or continue with post-grad work when a three-year PhD position came up. I'm now looking at a heat treatment that can improve stress corrosion in a metal without decreasing its strength too much. It's a collaboration with the United States Air Force, Australia's Defence Science and Technology Organisation and Monash University, and is part of their ageing aircraft program - looking at ways to keep planes flying longer.
JOHN: I've always been interested in science and engineering. At one time I was thinking about being a geologist, and at another I thought about being a food technologist, but I was always interested in metallurgy, probably because my father worked in the metallurgical industry. I did a Bachelor of applied science in metallurgy at RMIT, then joined Comalco research, where I stayed for 15 years doing a variety of work, from small investigations through to full-scale engineering projects. During that time I did a Masters in mathematical modelling through Monash University and have since done a PhD through the University of Queensland. Naturally, while I was working at Comalco, I was working on aluminium. I came to the CSIRO six years ago to work on magnesium. Currently there's no magnesium made in Australia, but the magnesium industry has a lot of growth, particularly in car parts. I also work as a leader in the aluminium casthouse products section of CAST, the co-operative research centre for cast metals manufacturing - one of about 60 of the Federal Government's co-operative research centres, which links industry, research organisations and universities.
My career focus has mostly been on process metallurgy: casting processes, particularly continuous casting, or refining processes. You can do a lot with a metallurgical degree: consulting, researching, managing operations.
ADRIAN: If the right research job comes along in two-and-a-half years, when I finish my PhD, I'd probably take that. I also have thoughts about having my own business. There is a fair bit of scope in Australia at the moment, especially with light alloys. Do you think you can you do a PhD and not be restricted to employment in research?
JOHN: Certainly. I've worked with a lot of PhDs and new graduates who have done research for a couple of years and then gone into operations to implement that work, spending quite a bit of time on site. Quite a few people end up doing what I did. They go straight into the workforce without a PhD and then do further study as they go. I work with a man who has been in the industry for 35 years and has just signed up at the University of Queensland to do his PhD.
ADRIAN: I don't think there is a problem with those studying materials science and engineering getting jobs at the end of their course. At Monash there are around 80 postgrads in the area at the moment, the highest number in a while.
JOHN: There has certainly been a drop in the number of places in metallurgical engineering offered by different institutions in Australia. My impression is people with different sorts of degrees are filling positions and there is a re-labelling of the function - metallurgy isn't a term as commonly used anymore. Still, materials are more important than ever and there's an ongoing struggle for market share (with cars, for example, the polymer, light metal and steel manufacturers fight ferociously to have their material used by the car makers).
ADRIAN: That re-labelling of the work is obvious when you're looking through job ads. I look each week and there are few that say ``metallurgist" or ``materials engineer". The jobs are out there but they might be called something else, like a ``quality engineer" which, if you look closer, might be looking at metals. What's your advice on doing PhD compared to using those years to get work experience?
JOHN: I preferred to go straight to work but that was because, after four years of study, I didn't want to do another three. I wanted to implement my knowledge and it worked for me. By the time I did my PhD, I had a topic that matched what I was doing, I had developed a lot of the skills and organisation necessary for completing a PhD, and I was ready to study something in depth. If you're working to apply something in industry, you do enough to make it work but don't necessarily have time if you're going on to the next project. A PhD allows that.
© 2003 The Age
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