Paul G. Sanders

"The more you do, the more you do."
—George Sanders (my Dad)
—George Sanders (my Dad)
Contact
- sanders@mtu.edu
- 906-487-2339
- M & M Building 501
- Patrick S. Horvath Endowed Professorship of Materials Science, Materials Science and Engineering
- Adjunct Professor, School of Information Technology, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment at Deakin University
- PhD, Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University
- BS, Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Michigan Tech
Biography
- BS in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Michigan Tech
- Summer internships at General Motors Central Foundry in Saginaw, MI (ductile iron) and Massena, NY (lost foam aluminum)
- Graduate internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Metals and Ceramic Division, Metalworking Theory and Practice (Ni3Al, Fe3Al, iridium)
- PhD in Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University
- Synthesis, characterization, and properties of nanocrystalline Cu and Pd utilizing x-ray line broadening and small angle neutron scattering
- Inert gas condensation processing at Argonne National Laboratory, Materials Science Division
- Post-doc at Argonne National Laboratory, Technology Development Division (laser welding and laser surface modification)
- Post-doc at Harvard University, Division of Engineering & Applied Science, Materials Kinetics Group (laser melting to assess solidification partitioning and diffusion)
- Technical Leader at Ford Motor Company, Research and Advanced Engineering, Materials
Science Department, Chassis Materials
- Developed new materials and processes, especially for brake rotors
- Certified Six Sigma Black Belt
- Black Belt assignment at Jaguar Land Rover, Chassis Engineering
- Since 2009 faculty at Michigan Tech, Materials Science and Engineering
- Emphasis on materials design—integrating innovative microstructures and processes, ICME, Six Sigma, machine learning, and experimental verification.
- Research and development funded by industry and government
- Teach and apply methods in undergraduate Capstone Senior Design
- Sabbatical at Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Australia
- Foundry Educational Foundation (FEF) Key Professor
- Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST) Foundation Steel Professor
Links of Interest
Teaching Interests
- Integration of design, ICME tools, Six Sigma, and experiments to create new materials
- Material (Metal) Design: Microstructure design through alloy and processing
- Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME): Thermo-Calc, MAGMASOFT
- Six Sigma: Application of statistical tools to material design; especially designed experiments
- Synthesize new materials through melt, deformation, or additive methods
- Apply design, ICME, statistics, and experiments in undergraduate Capstone Design experiences
Research Interests
- Material Design in aluminum, ferrous, nickel, copper, and zinc systems
- Application of ICME and statistical tools to material design; use designed experiments (especially mixture DOEs and machine learning) to assess thermodynamic and kinetic processing space
- Experimental verification of simulated material designs through metal casting, wrought (extrusion, rolling, drawing, swaging) processing, and/or additive manufacturing
- Design and assess mechanical (tensile/fatigue/creep), electrical (conductivity), wear, and corrosion properties
- Applications in sustainability, transportation (light weighting), efficiency (high temperature stability), and wear resistance (in process surface optimization)
- Research areas: high temperature aluminum, cast iron, and nickel alloys; high strength aluminum, aluminum and steel alloys for wire-based additive manufacturing