Eco-Materials Processing and Design

Soo Wohn Lee is a professor in the Department of Materials Engineering at Sun Moon University in Korea. His current research interests include using recycled materials to absorb sound, microstructure design of silicon nitride for multi-functional properties such as high thermal conductivity and high transparency, the development of thermal-spray coatings by using nanocrystalline oxide ceramic powders, and nanocrystalline ceramic composites for use in artificial hip joints. Professor Lee received his PhD degree in materials engineering from the University of Illinois—Chicago in 1986. After postdoctoral training, he researched the development of wear maps in advanced structural ceramics at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He then joined Sun Moon University as an assistant professor in 1993 and became a full professor in 2000. In 1999, Lee was an invited professor at ISIR (the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research) within Osaka University in Japan. He has been organizing the international symposia on eco-materials design and processes since 2000, and plans to organize the eighth international symposium in January, 2007 in Kitakyushu, Japan.

Koji Watari is a leader and senior research scientist in the Advanced Sintering Technology Group, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and guest professor of Nagaoka University of Technology, Japan. His research focuses on low-energy processing of advanced ceramics with high performance. He received his BS, MS, and D.Eng in Materials Science and Engineering, all from NUT. After receiving his PhD, he worked at the National Industrial Research Institute of Nagoya (NIRIN), Japan as a research scientist between 1990 and 2000, and also worked in the Materials Research Laboratory at The Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA, from 1998 to 1999. Watari has authored more than 150 publications and holds 20 patents in materials engineering, and has organized six international symposia. He was chosed as Guest Editors; of MRS Bulletin, a member of the editorial board of the Advances in Technology of Materials and Materials Processing Journal (ATM), Journal of Ceramic Society of Japan, Bulletin of Ceramic Society of Japan and Material Integration since 2000. Watari has received the Young Scientist Award of the Ceramic Society of Japan in 1997, Academic Award of the Nagai Science and Technology Foundation in 2002 and six "best paper" awards from international conferences. He is a member of the American Ceramic Society, the Ceramic Society of Japan,the Material Research Society and Japan Society of Thermophysical Properties.