AWS salutes the extraordinary men and women who took honors at the 2002 AWS Welding Show, held March 3 - 7 in Chicago, Il, the following men and women were presented awards:
COMFORT A. ADAMS LECTURE AWARD
Akira Matsunawa received his Ph.D. in engineering from Osaka University and is currently an emeritus professor of Osaka University. His research career in welding physics spans more than 40 years.
Throughout his career, Matsunawa has engaged in studies on "Anode and Cathode Discharge Mechanisms of High Current Arc," "Underwater Arc Welding with Local Dry Cavity and Arc Characteristics in High Pressure," "Interaction between Supersonic Jet and Cutting Front Wall in Oxygen Flame Cutting," and "Heat and Mass Transfer in Arc Welding." Since 1980, he has been involved in scientific research on laser materials processing, particularly on beam-plume interaction, keyhole dynamics, defects formation mechanism in laser beam welding, mathematical modeling of arc and laser beam welding, modeling of rapid fusion and solidification, and laser welding of similar and dissimilar metals in microgravity.
Matsunawa is a member of AWS, the Japan Welding Society, Japan Welding Engineering Society, Light Metal Welding and Construction Association (LMWCA), High Temperature Society of Japan (HTSJ), the Laser Society of Japan, and the Laser Institute of America (LIA). He is also an active member of IIW Commissions IV (High Energy Welding), VI (Welding Terms), SG 212 (Welding Physics), and the Select Committee of Underwater Welding. He has served as chairman of IIW Commission IV since 2002, and was honored as a Fellow of LIA in 1994 and AWS in 1998.
ADAMS MEMORIAL MEMBERSHIP AWARD
Carl E. Cross is an associate professor in the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department at Montana Tech of the University of Montana, Butte, Mont. He has more than 20 years of experience in welding research in both the nuclear and aerospace industries and is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Colorado.
Focusing on the weldability and solidification behavior of aluminum, titanium, and stainless steel alloys, Cross has published widely in the area of weld hot-cracking and weldability testing. He has made significant contributions to Al-Li weld development and holds a patent on filler alloy composition. This technology is now being used in the construction of the external tank for the NASA Space Shuttle.
After receiving undergraduate and advanced degrees in metallurgical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), Golden, Colo., Cross continued his involvement in the CSM welding program as an adjunct professor, accumulating more than eight years of teaching experience. He has given lectures and short courses worldwide and serves as a principal reviewer for the Welding Journal.
More recently, Cross spent one year as guest professor at the Universitat der Bundeswehr-Hamburg performing hyperbaric welding research on duplex stainless steel used in North Sea oil pipelines. Prior to joining Montana Tech, he spent two and one-half years at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology as a visiting scientist developing new high-strength welding consumables for use in the construction of aluminum fast ferries.
HOWARD E. ADKINS
MEMORIAL INSTRUCTOR
MEMBERSHIP AWARD
William L. Galvery, Jr., received a bachelor of vocational education degree from California State University, Long Beach, Calif., in 1999. He has more than 30 years of industrial welding experience and is an AWS Certified Welding Inspector and Certified Welding Educator.
Since 1993, Galvery has been associate professor of welding technology at the Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Calif., where he teaches structural and pipe welding in each of the welding processes along with advanced welding classes including training and preparation for the Los Angeles City written and physical examination. He is also involved with I-CAR training and test administration.
Galvery was recognized and honored with an Excellence In Education Award by the University of Texas at Austin, nominated by the Orange Coast faculty and dean of technology as Outstanding Teacher of the Year, and has served as an officer for the AWS Long Beach/Orange County Section. In addition, Galvery is the author of Welding Essentials: Questions and Answers and Welding Essentials: Questions and Answers, first revised edition.
Kevin D. Johnston holds an associate degree in electrical engineering and is working toward his bachelor degree in management. He is an adjunct professor at the Kansas City Metropolitan Community Colleges' Business and Technology Center.
Johnston is an AWS Certified Welding Inspector, a Certified Welding Educator, and a Senior Certified Welding Inspector. He is a member of the AWS Kansas City Section's executive board and serves as its first vice chairman. He is involved in all Section activities with special emphasis on educational activities for high school and postsecondary students.
In 2001, Cho joined the General Motors Collaborative Research Laboratory, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Cho is a recipient of Hanyang University's Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award in 2000. He has coauthored more than 15 technical papers on the various applications of resistance welding and is a member of AWS and the Korean Welding Society.
Sehun Rhee earned his Ph.D. at University of Michigan in 1990. In 1994, Rhee joined Hanyang University in Korea as a professor in mechanical engineering. He has published 75 technical papers and 75 conference papers.
In 1998, Rhee received the Best Paper Award from the Korean Welding Society (KWS) and, in 1999, the Best Researcher Award from the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies and the Best Professor Award from Hanyang University in 2002.
Rhee is a member of the American Welding Society, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, KWS, and Korean Society of Precision Engineering (KSPE). He is editor-in-chief for the International Journal of the Korean Welding Society and serves on several national committees of professional societies and industrial advisory boards.
Menon served as supervisor of welding research at UT until 1987, when he went to work for Teledyne McKay in York, Pa., as a senior research engineer. He was made director of research in 1989 and worked primarily in the development of stainless steel and nickel alloy welding consumables. He served as director of the Materials Group at Edison Welding Institute before joining the Stoody Company in 1994 as director of research.
Menon chairs the AWS A5G Subcommittee on Hardfacing Filler Metals and is a member of the A5 Filler Metal Committee. He has numerous publications to his credit and is currently the recipient of three U.S. patents pertaining to surfacing alloys and methods.
DALTON E. HAMILTON
MEMORIAL CWI OF THE
YEAR AWARD
William R. Beck is with the Project Management Construction Division of the Eastman Kodak Co. in Rochester, N.Y. He began his welding career in 1967 while in the U.S. Navy, where he serviced and repaired nuclear and non-nuclear piping systems on nuclear submarines, performing pipefitting, welding, and brazing.
Beck holds certifications as an AWS Certified Welding Inspector; a New York state DOT-Registered Inspector; ASNT Level II, visual testing; ASNT Level II, dye penetrant testing; and ASNT Level II, magnetic particle testing.
HONORARY MEMBERSHIP AWARD Tarasankar DebRoy is professor of materials science and engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa. He received his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, and completed postdoctoral work at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, England, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has authored or coauthored more than 180 papers.
DebRoy, in recognition of his work, has received the AWS William Spraragen Memorial Award (2001), Comfort Adams Lecture Award (2000), Warren F. Savage Memorial Award (1998), Charles H. Jennings Memorial Award (1997), the McKay Helm Award (1994), and the Adams Memorial Membership Award (1992) for outstanding teaching. He has also received the Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering (1997) from Penn State and the Wilson Research Award (1993) from Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
DebRoy serves as one of the three editors of Science and Technology of Welding and Joining and as a principal reviewer for the Welding Journal's Welding Research Supplement. He also served on the AWS Technical Papers, Research and Development, Welding Handbook, and Awards Committees. DebRoy is a Fellow of AWS (1999) and ASM International (1993).
Michael L. Weller is president of Miller Electric Mfg. Co., an Illinois Tool Works company in Appleton, Wis.
Weller received a bachelor's degree in economics from Ripon College in 1975. He joined Arps Division of Chromalloy, New Holstein, Wis., as director of human resources. Before joining Miller in 1993 as vice president of human resources, he was employed in various human resource assignments. From 1999 to 2001, he was Miller's vice president/general manager with areas of responsibility including sales, marketing, manufacturing, and finance.
Paul Ramsey was active in the International Institute of Welding (IIW) for 23 years. He has served as U.S. Delegate to Commission IV and as a member of the Study Group on Welding Research and Collaboration. For six years, he was chair of the American Council and represented the U.S. as a member of the IIW Governing Council.
Ramsey spent most of his professional career with A. O. Smith Corp., where he was manager of welding and metallurgical R&D.
Ramsey was active in both local and national AWS affairs and served on the board of directors. He was president of the Society for the 1975-1976 term. From 1982-1987, he was on staff at AWS as executive director. A Fellow of AWS and ASM, Ramsey has been the recipient of several AWS awards including the R. D. Thomas Memorial Award. A Life Member of AIME, he also holds membership in ASME, SAE, SME, and the Welding Research Council. He has authored 16 technical papers and holds five patents.
WILLIAM IRRGANG
MEMORIAL AWARD
James L. Jellison earned a Ph.D. in materials science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y. He retired from Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.Mex., in 2001, where, during his mid-career, he led the creation of Sandia's welding R&D team.
From 1958 to 1967, while with General Electric, Jellison developed numerous metallurgical forming and joining processes, especially for nuclear reactor components. He joined Sandia National Laboratories in 1970. His early Sandia research was on microminiature solid state welding. Later, he performed and led R&D on a diverse number of welding processes, including soldering, brazing, diffusion welding, friction welding, arc welding, and laser beam welding. He was a pioneer in laser beam welding and was associated with the first commercial high pulse rate Nd:YAG laser to be applied to welding. Processes invented by Jellison while with GE and Sandia are the subject of numerous patents. Jellison is a Fellow of both AWS and ASM International.
He is currently senior researcher in the Optoelectronic Device R&D Department, Gyeonggi-do, Korea.
Suck-Joo Na was awarded his Dr.-Ing. degree in welding engineering from TU Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany. In 1983, he joined the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology as a researcher and lecturer on welding and other thermal processes.
Na has published more than 140 research papers and presented more than 110 papers at conferences. He has received numerous awards and is vice president of the Korean Welding Society and a member of AWS, the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Japanese Welding Society, and the German Welding Society.
Liu has authored and coauthored more than 160 technical publications. He has received several prestigious AWS honors including the Adams Memorial Membership Award, Distinguished Member, Robert L. Peaslee Brazing Award, District Meritorious Award, and Honorary Membership Award. He was elected AWS Fellow in 1996 and delivered the 1998 AWS Plummer Educational Lecture.
Liu received the ASME Special Achievement Award, the ASME-OMAE Special Achievement Award, the ASME-OMAE Achievement Award, and was elected Fellow of the ASME in 1999. He is a recipient of the SAE Teetor Educational Award in 1986. Liu is also an ASM Fellow (2001). For his research work in underwater welding consumables development, Engineering News-Record selected Liu as one of the top 25 newsmakers in the world construction industries in 1996.
Liu is currently editor-in-chief of the ASME Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering. He is a member of the American Welding Society, ASM International, the Metallurgical and Materials Society, American Society of Mechanical Engineers International, and the Japan Welding Society. He is also a Chartered Professional Engineer registered with the United Kingdom's Engineering Council.
Wesley Wang received his Ph.D. degree in metallurgical engineering and materials science from the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), Golden, Colo.
Wang is currently the country manager-China, SSD, with Global Industries, Ltd., Global Divers and Contractors, LLC. Previously, he was responsible for welding QA management, materials handling for pipeline projects, R&D projects, and field engineering.
PROF. KOICHI
MASUBUCHI AWARD
Tracy W. Nelson received his Ph.D. degree from The Ohio State University in welding engineering. He joined the faculty at Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1995 and teaches courses in materials science, manufacturing, and joining processes. He is also the director of the Center for Advanced Joining of Materials at BYU.
Over the past five years, Nelson's research focus has been in the area of friction stir welding (FSW), including both fundamental and applied topics.
Nelson was the recipient of the Henry Granjon Award (1996) from the International Institute of Welding and the American Welding Society's Warren F. Savage Award. He presently serves on the AWS Chapter Committees on Welding Metallurgy and on Stainless and Heat-Resisting Steels and the Advisory Committee for AWS D17, Specification for Friction Stir Welding of Aluminum for Aerospace Applications.
NATIONAL MERITORIOUS AWARD
Richard Lyell Holdren began his professional welding career in 1973 after graduating from The Ohio State University with a B.S. in welding engineering.
In 1981, Holdren cofounded Welding Consultants, Inc., and served as its vice president and principal welding engineer until 1995. He then joined the Edison Welding Institute and served in numerous technical and marketing positions, including his current position as principal welding engineer.
Holdren is a registered Professional Engineer in Ohio and Indiana. He is an AWS Certified Welding Inspector and AWS Senior Certified Welding Inspector. He is certified as ASNT Level III in MT, PT, and UT.
Holdren has actively served in both local and national positions in various technical societies including ASNT and AWS. Locally, he served as chairman of both groups. Nationally, Holdren has served AWS through active involvement on numerous education and technical committees He currently chairs the A2, A2B, and B1 Committees and is second vice chair of the Technical Activities Committee. Holdren is a Distinguished Member of AWS and an ASNT Fellow. He has received the AWS District Meritorious Award, the AWS Section and District CWI of the Year Award, and the IIW International Welding Engineer Award.
Holdren has made more than 50 technical presentations since 1980, several of which were published in the Welding Journal and other technical journals. He has served as both contributor and chapter chair for the 7th, 8th, and 9th editions of the Welding Handbook and has contributed to other committee publications. Additionally, Holdren authored the AWS training materials Welding Inspection Technology and Welding and Cutting Processes. He also revised and edited the latest edition of Certification Manual for Welding Inspectors.
Ronald C. Pierce earned his degree in mechanical engineering at Purdue University in 1955 and is a registered Professional Engineer in Alabama and Mississippi. He is president and CEO of Welding Engineering Supply Co., Inc., based in Prichard, Ala., and is chairman and trustee of the AWS Foundation.
Pierce is an AWS past president and a past member of the AWS board of directors, AWS Life Member, and a past and present member of various AWS Section and national committees. Pierce is a past member of the Welding Distributor Editorial Advisory Board and is presently affiliated with the Gases and Welding Distributors Association, Associated Builders and Contractors Association, and Associated General Contractors. He also serves on the welding advisory boards of Bishop State Community College, North Baldwin Center for Technology, Bryant Area Vocational Center, and Jefferson Davis Community College.
Gales holds a teaching degree from the Technical High School at Deventer. He is currently working on a European project for replacing carbon steel with stainless steel in the metro car and train industry. Gale has published his findings in numerous technical journals and has lectured widely.
David Jacobson holds both academic and industrial appointments. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Sussex in 1972.
After working on brazing material development at Johnson Matthey Metals (U.K.), Jacobson joined the Hirst Research Centre of GEC-Marconi (U.K.) in 1981, heading the Materials Fabrication Division. He has conducted innovative research and development on solders for electronics, aluminum brazes and lightweight plasma interfacing structures for nuclear fusion reactors, and low-expansion alloys for electronics packaging. He is the author of more than 80 research papers and was named inventor on several patents in these fields.
For his contribution to aluminum joining technology, Jacobson was a corecipient of the AWS Robert L. Peaslee Brazing Award and the Cook Prize from the Institute of Materials. He co-authored the textbook Principles of Soldering and Brazing with Giles Humpston (ASM, 1993).
P. S. Sangha received his graduate and postgraduate degrees in material science from Imperial College, London, U.K.
Sangha is currently with Astrium Ltd., where he has worked on various aspects of satellite manufacture including the design and manufacture of C-band and Ku-band electronic payload equipment. His prior projects include the European Union funded CRAFT project developing silver-free brazes for large gap brazing and the European Union funded BRITE/ EURAM project dealing with the development of novel lightweight materials for microwave packaging based on high-silicon aluminum alloys.
From 1990 to 1994, Sangha worked on the development of low-temperature (550°C) aluminum brazes as a part of the European Union funded BRITE/EURAM program. He coauthored two award-winning publications on the subject and received the AWS Robert L. Peaslee Brazing Award and the award given by The Institute of Materials, London, for best publication for the years 1995 and 1996.
Sangha has coauthored more than 36 publications and conference presentations.
Eberhard Schmid studied metallurgical engineering at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and, for one part of his thesis, he received ASM's Jacquet-Lucas Award for Excellence in Metallography. He earned his Ph.D. from the Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, Stuttgart. Since 1996, he has been employed at the Berkenhoff GmbH (BedraTM) in Gieşen. He is responsible for the research and development section of the welding/brazing business, and for the past three years, he has served as head of quality management.
From 1985 to 2000, Schmid was a member of the scientist group that critically evaluated publications dealing with ternary alloy constitution. From 1987 to 1995, he was the head of several international cooperative projects at the central laboratory of Metallgesellschaft AG in Frankfurt/Main. The industrial-oriented projects concerned powder metallurgy and casting developments for aerospace and automotive engineering components (i.e., pistons). Later, he was group leader of physical and metallographical examinations.
Knight began his career with Chrysler Corp. in 1976 in Detroit, Mich. He has held various positions in management and served as chief instructor and manager of the Weld Tech Welding Education Center, Chrysler Learning Inc., an accredited, licensed private vocational school.
Knight attended Macomb Community College, Lawrence Institute of Technology, and Central Michigan University. He is a member of AWS and is an AWS Certified Welding Inspector and Certified Welding Educator. Knight is a former AWS Detroit Section chairman (1991-1992) and is currently serving on the AWS National Education and Scholarship Committees and the Welding Handbook Subcommittee for Welding Tool & Die Steels.
Knight has been involved in the SkillsUSA/VICA Welding Competition for 25 years at the state level and has served on the International Weld Trials since 1989 and the National Committee for 5 years. He has helped design several challenging performance tasks for the Michigan State High School Competition and has acted as cochairman for the event.
Early in his career, Campbell was an apprentice with the Millwright Local Union #740 in New York. In 1980, he joined the New York City District Council of Carpenters Labor Technical College (NYCDCC) and trained millwright journeymen and apprentices in shielded metal arc welding. Since that time, the curriculum at the school has expanded to include beginning and advanced welding of plate and pipe using shielded metal arc, gas metal arc, and flux cored arc welding and GMAW, OFC, CAG, and PAC. Emphasis is placed upon welder qualification for a NYC Class 1 or Class 4 License and a NYC Department of Transportation Class 1 Qualification.
Campbell became an AWS Certification Welding Inspector in 1987. Having retired after 38 years of working in outside construction, he continues to perform welder qualification and inspection. He also continues to teach evening welding courses at the NYCDCC School, a Carpenter Minority Worker Pre-Apprentice Welding Program, and some apprentice day session programs in basic welding.
Jesse A. Grantham earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in welding engineering from The Ohio State University in 1988 and 1992, respectively. He is a past instructor at The Ohio State University, Columbia Basin College, and adjunct professor at Washington State University. He is also an instructor for the National Board of Pressure Vessel Examiners, ASM International, and ASNT.
Grantham is a registered Professional Engineer in six states and an AWS Certified Welding Inspector, Certified Welding Educator, and ASNT Level III inspector. He manages the WJMG AWS Accredited Welder Test Facility and FAA Repair Station WOJR662Y, which conducts fusion welding and nondestructive testing. Grantham is an active member of several technical and professional societies and has held offices both locally and nationally. He is a member of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers (NAFE), an affiliate of NSPE, and is the current AWS District 20 director.
Brasher is the co-owner and founder of High Energy Metals, Inc. (HEMI), a small explosive metal fabricating shop. Founded in 1997, the company specializes in unique dissimilar metal bonded joints. Prior to founding HEMI, Brasher was the vice president of Northwest Technical Industries, Inc., a manufacturer of explosively bonded and formed products. During his employment there, he specialized in developing new customers and research and development. Brasher is the coauthor of five publications.
Donald J. Butler received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Tulane University in 1982. He is presently co-owner and cofounder of High Energy Metals, Inc., a small business specializing in explosive metal fabrication. Since 1997, High Energy Metals, Inc., has been at the cutting edge of the explosion bonding industry, joining many dissimilar metal combinations and machining the materials to provide a finished component.
Prior to founding High Energy Metals, Inc., Butler was senior projects engineer at Northwest Technical Industries, Inc., a manufacturer of explosively bonded and formed products. He has written and received three Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Grants and managed their completion. Butler is the coauthor of four published papers.
John W. Elmer earned his Sc.D. in metallurgy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988. From 1982-1984, he worked as a welding metallurgist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (LLNL) for a variety of defense-related programs. He returned to LLNL in 1989, where he is currently deputy program element leader for stockpile metallurgy and joining in the Materials Science and Technology Division.
Elmer is also the principal investigator for a DOE-Basic Energy Sciences program to study welding-
induced phase transformations using synchrotron radiation. He is a Fellow of AWS, the recipient of AWS's Professor Masubuchi-Shinsho Corporation Award, William Spraragen Award, and A. F. Davis Silver Medal. He currently serves as adjunct professor at The Pennsylvania State University, is a member of numerous professional committees for AWS and ASM International, has published more than 70 articles and reports, and has received seven U.S. patents for his work in the field of welding.
Peter E. Terrill received his M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in 1997. Since then, he has worked as a research and design engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for a variety of defense-related programs. He is currently the flight test director for the Air Force Reentry Systems Group in the Defense Technology Engineering Division.
received his Ph.D. in materials science from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel. Currently, he teaches materials processing and welding theory at Ben-Gurion University and serves as a research group leader at the Israeli National Laboratory at Beer-Sheva. His expertise is in electron microscopy.
Landau performs research on the microstructural behavior of processed materials and on hydrogen management of welded alloys. In 1997, he spent a year as a visiting professor in the Center for Welding, Joining, and Coatings Research at the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colo.
Iman Soerjadarma Maroef is a research associate at the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colo. where, in 1999, he earned earned his Ph.D. His current metallurgical investigations include issues relevant to hydrogen cracking in high-strength steel weldments, weldability of superalloys, and failure analyses.
Maroef has a background in mechanical engineering with which he obtained several years of industrial experience in Indonesia before pursuing his graduate study.
David L. Olson received a Ph.D. in materials science from Cornell University and has performed postdoctoral work at The Ohio State University. Currently, he is the John H. Moore Distinguished Professor of Physical Metallurgy at Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colo.
Olson is a member of and has participated in a number of technical committees of professional societies and government organizations, including U.S.-sponsored visiting teams to India and Argentina. He is the recipient of numerous awards, honors, and recognitions from AWS and other professional societies and educational institutions and is an AWS and ASM Fellow. He received the 1999 TTCP Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Defense, Washington, D.C., and the recognition of Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences (Materials Science) of Ukraine, Kiev.
Yeong-Do Park received his M.S. degree in metallurgical and materials engineering from Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colo., in 1999 and is currently a Ph.D. candidate.
The topic of his master's thesis was the role of retained austenite in the hydrogen management of high-strength steel welds. His research areas include hydrogen management of high-strength steel welds, hydrogen contents measurement by using thermoelectric power (TEP) for INVAR and bronze, and formability of Al-Au alloy (Purple Gold). The subject of Park's Ph.D. thesis is the study of TEP to access the metallurgical and microstructural phase stability, including advanced diffusible hydrogen sensor, for welds using TEP.
R.D. THOMAS MEMORIAL AWARD
Craig Dallam is group leader, shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) consumables in the Consumable R&D Department of The Lincoln Electric Co. in Cleveland, Ohio.
Dallam's research areas have included pipeline consumables, hydrogen-assisted cracking with pipeline consumables, alloy development for cellulosic electrodes, and manufacturing concerns for SMAW electrodes. His primary product development responsibilities have included pipeline consumables, both self-shielded flux cored consumables (FCAW-S) and SMAW.
Dallam earned a graduate degree from the Colorado School of Mines. He is a member of the API 1104 Committee (Welding of Pipelines and Related Facilities), IIW Commission XI (Pressure Vessels and Pipelines), and a principal reviewer for the Welding Journal's Welding Research Supplement. He has contributed to the Metal Handbook and has published proceedings from several conferences in the Welding Journal.
ELIHU THOMSON RESISTANCE WELDING AWARD
T. James "Jim" Snow, Sr., is founder and chairman emeritus of T. J. Snow Co., Inc., Chattanooga, Tenn. He began his resistance welding career in the early 1950s as a salesman for the Jones-Sylar Supply Co. of Chattanooga, Tenn., the exclusive southeastern sales representative for the Taylor-Winfield Co. (T-W) of Warren, Ohio. After 12 years in the business, Snow founded the T. J. Snow Co.
T. J. Snow Co. employs two service engineers who are also private pilots. On call 24 hours a day, they regularly fly the company's plane to the aid of customers with breakdowns, often literally "saving the day" of production.
After many years representing a succession of northern resistance welding machine manufacturers, including Progressive, Precision, LORS, and Berkeley-Davis (now Automation International), the time came for the company to expand into welding machine manufacturing. After taking trade-ins and attending auctions for several years, an inventory of used resistance welding machines had been acquired for resale. As the company was already well known for its ability to remanufacture and retool used resistance welding machines of all types, it was a natural fit.
Snow was this year's recipient of the Resistance Welder Manufacturers Association's Elihu Thomson Resistance Welding Award. Snow is retired from the company as chairman emeritus.
GEORGE E. WILLIS AWARD
Walter J. Sperko is president of Sperko Engineering Services, Inc., which he founded in 1981. He has extensive experience in welding engineering, metallurgical engineering, design, failure analysis, and quality assurance with specialization in piping and pressure vessels. Sperko was awarded a B.A. and a B.S. in metallurgical engineering from the University of Notre Dame and is a Professional Engineer registered in North Carolina and other states. He has worked for Ebasco Services, ITT Grinnell Industrial Piping, and Richmond Engineering.
Sperko is vice chairman of ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Subcommittee IX, Welding and Brazing Qualifications; chairman of ASME Subcommittee B31.9, Building Services Piping; and chairman of the AWS International Standards Activities Committee. He has been an ISO Observer to CEN 121 SC1 since 1994 and SC2 since 1998.
Sperko teaches publicly offered courses in piping and ASME Section IX. He has published articles in various trade magazines and holds three U.S. patents.
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