Wilfried Kurz

Curriculum vitae Wilfried Kurz was born in Leoben, Styria, Austria, in 1938. After attending High School at Leoben, he studied at Montanuniversität Leoben. In 1964, he joined the Battelle  Research Laboratories in Geneva, Switzerland, leading the physical metallurgy group. During this period, he received his doctorate from Montanuniversität Leoben and published his thesis, 'Ultrasonic Localisation of the Solid–Liquid Interface in Metals', in 1968. In 1971, he was appointed Associate Professor in the Department of Materials at EPFL, becoming a Full Professor of Physical Metallurgy in 1974. He directed the Laboratory of Physical Metallurgy and the Laser Materials Processing Centre until his statutory retirement in 2003.In 1974, he helped establish Switzerland's first materials science degree programme at EPFL. He later served twice as Head of Department and, from 2001 to 2005, chaired EPFL’s Tenure Track Committee.Kurz also worked to strengthen European collaboration in materials research. For example, he chaired the management committee of the COST Advanced Solidification and Casting Technology programme for industrial software development. In 1999, he joined the executive committee of the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS), serving as president from 2004 to 2005. In 2003, he chaired the important international EUROMAT congress in Lausanne.From 2009 to 2017, he was a member of the Board of Governors of Acta Materialia Inc., USA, and served on the advisory committees of Montanuniversität Leoben and the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research in Düsseldorf, Germany. Furthermore, he contributed to the development of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) in Limassol, which was established in 2004. ResearchKurz’s research elucidates the growth of microstructures, combining experiment and theory. He has examined dendritic, peritectic and eutectic solidification, micro‑segregation and solid‑state transformation kinetics, collaborating closely with Rohit Trivedi of Iowa State University.He has also investigated solidification‑processing techniques including continuous casting of steel, welding, laser treatment, rapid solidification, single‑crystal casting, directional solidification and epitaxial single‑crystal laser repair. His work underpins microstructure modelling in additive manufacturing.Awards and recognitionBruce Chalmers Award of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, USAEuropean Materials Medal of FEMS, EuropeMédaille Bastien Guillet, Société Française de Métallurgie et des Matériaux (SF2M), FranceISI Highly Cited ResearcherHeyn Memorial Medal of the German Society for Materials Science, GermanyLuigi Losana Gold Medal of the Associazione Italiana di Metallurgia, ItalyAlbert Sauveur Achievement Award of ASM International, USAJohn Hunt Medal, IoM3 – The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, London, UKVisiting professor at Brunel University London, UKHonorary Member, Iron and Steel Institute of JapanCorresponding member, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, AustriaSelected publications      Trivedi, R.; Kurz, W. (January 1994). "Dendritic growth". International Materials Reviews. 39 (2): 49–74.       Gäumann, M.; Bezençon, C.; Canalis, P.; Kurz, W. (April 2001). "Single-crystal laser deposition of superalloys: processing–microstructure maps". Acta Materialia. 49 (6): 1051–1062.      Kurz, W. (July 2001). "Solidification Microstructure-Processing Maps: Theory and Application". Advanced Engineering Materials. 3 (7): 443–452.      Lima, Milton; Kurz, Wilfried (August 2002). "Massive transformation and absolute stability". Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A. 33 (8): 2337–2345.     Dobler, S; Lo, T.S; Plapp, M; Karma, A; Kurz, W (May 2004). "Peritectic coupled growth". Acta Materialia. 52 (9): 2795–2808.      Wang, N; Mokadem, S; Rappaz, M; Kurz, W (June 2004). "Solidification cracking of superalloy single- and bi-crystals". Acta Materialia. 52 (11): 3173–3182.      Kurz, Wilfried; Fisher, David J.; Trivedi, Rohit (18 August 2019). "Progress in modelling solidification microstructures in metals and alloys: dendrites and cells from 1700 to 2000". International Materials Reviews. 64 (6): 311–354.      Kurz, Wilfried; Rappaz, Michel; Trivedi, Rohit (2 January 2021). "Progress in modelling solidification microstructures in metals and alloys. Part II: dendrites from 2001 to 2018". International Materials Reviews. 66 (1): 30–76.Books     Kurz, Wilfried; Sahm, P.R. (1975). Gerichtet erstarrte eutektische Werkstoffe, Springer, Berlin 345 pp.     Mercier, Jean-Pierre ; Kurz, W.; Zambelli, G. (2002). Introduction à la Science des Matériaux, 3ème édition, PPUR, Switzerland 497 pp.     Kurz, Wilfried; Fisher, D.J.; Rappaz, M. (2023). Fundamentals of Solidification. 5th revised edition, Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland 359 pp.     Kurz, Wilfried; Fisher, D.J.; Rappaz, M. (2023). Fundamentals of Solidification – Solutions Manual, Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland 84 pp. Teaching & PhD Past EPFL PhD Students Philippe Gilgien, Thomas Liechti, Olivier Hunziker, Mehrdad Vandyoussefi, Stewes Bourban, Matthias Gäumann, Stéphane Dobler, Cyrille Bezençon, Sélim Mokadem, Alexander Schnell