Dialogue with Emerging Engineers

Excerpt

In high school, I was taught that all metal is bonded with metallic bonds and all solids lie in a regularly oriented lattice. These statements don’t depict the intricate microstructural features that metallurgists study. I was unfamiliar with metallography and microstructure prior to my sophomore year at Colorado School of Mines. In a heavily metallurgy-themed materials science introduction class I learned the principles of crystallography, the stress–strain curve, elastic and plastic deformation, binary solidification, and prediction of microstructural features. The most valuable learning occurred in the laboratory as an undergraduate researcher with the Advanced Steel Processing and Products Research Center (ASPPRC). I performed metallographic preparation and analysis for multiple Ph.D. students. Of course, this experience helped me to succeed in the classroom, where students were instructed to section, mount, grind, polish, etch, and photograph steel and brass microstructures. …