Oct. 2, 2009
Rajiv Asthana, a professor of engineering and technology at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie, has been named a Fellow of the American Society for Materials, ASM International. Asthana teaches in the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. He was selected by the society based on his contributions to cast metal-matrix composites and ceramic-metal joining.
The Fellow of the Society honor was established in 1969 by ASM International to recognize members for their distinguished contributions to materials science and engineering and to develop a broad-based forum of technical and professional leaders to serve as advisers to the society.
Asthana started to work on cast composites in 1983 while he was employed as a scientist with India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He continued this research over the next 15 years in India and the United States; this included four years at the NASA Glenn Research Center in the early 1990s. He was recognized by NASA for his technical innovations.
Asthana’s recent collaboration with NASA has led to additional innovative concepts and approaches with important ramifications in the area of propulsion. His collaborative partnership with NASA also has opened up research opportunities for UW-Stout students.
In the summer of 2009, undergraduate students Casandra Baer, an engineering technology major, and Bryan Coddington, a manufacturing engineering major, researched ceramic joining at NASA Glenn during 10-week paid internships.
Asthana also maintains scholarly collaboration in the science of joining with the Center for High-Temperature Studies at the Foundry Research Institute in Krakow, Poland. In August, he presented some of his collaborative work at the European Congress on Advanced Materials — EUROMAT-2009 — held in Glasgow, Scotland at a symposium he organized and co-chaired. In mid-October, Asthana will be in Poland for two days to present an inaugural lecture at the International Conference on Cast Composites 2009, at Kocierz, near Krakow.
An author or co-author of 150 refereed publications and four books, including one of the first books on solidification of reinforced metals, Asthana has been a guest editor, editorial board member, invited speaker, conference organizer, and a visiting professor. He has just finished editing a book on ceramic integration to be published by John Wiley & Sons in 2010.
For more information, contact Asthana at asthanar@uwstout.edu or 715-232-2152.
