Organizing Committee
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Felipe Castro Cerda
Chair
Associate Professor
Universidad de Santiago de Chile -
Patricio Méndez
COMMITTEE MEMBER
Professor
University of Alberta -
Dilan Muñoz Vilches
Co-Chair
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Alisson Kwiatkowski da Silva
COMMITTEE MEMBER
Materials Engineer
Thermo-Calc Software AB -
Claudio Aguilar
COMMITTEE MEMBER
Felipe M. Castro Cerda is Associate Professor at the Department of Metallurgical Engineering, University of Santiago de Chile, and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta. He holds degrees in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science from USACH and completed a joint Ph.D. program between Chile and Belgium, obtaining a double degree in 2017. His professional experience also includes work as a heat-treatment engineer at Equipos Mineros SA. His research focuses on the physical metallurgy of steels, particularly the experimental assessment of microstructural evolution during phase transformations. He has authored 40 scientific papers and participated in numerous research projects as director and co-researcher. He has supervised students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and has been a guest researcher at institutions in Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands. He currently collaborates on applied research projects with partners in Chile, the United States, Canada, and Belgium.
Dilan Muñoz Vilches is a Metallurgical Engineer and holds an M.Sc. in Materials Science and Engineering from Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH). He is currently a third-year PhD candidate in Materials Science, pursuing a cotutelle doctoral program between USACH and Ghent University (UGent), Belgium. His research focuses on the development and characterization of advanced steels for grinding media used in SAG mills, with emphasis on their performance and industrial implementation. He is also involved in an applied research project with ME Elecmetal related to the development and evaluation of grinding media for the mining industry.
Prof Mendez is the Weldco/Industry Chair in Welding and Joining and Director of Canadian Centre for Welding and Joining at University of Alberta. His teaching and research focus on physics and mathematics of welding and materials processing. Applications include wear protection overlays, procedure development, laser cladding, handheld laser welding, and additive manufacturing, always with an aim of helping people and industry improve quality, productivity, and costs. Before joining the University of Alberta, he was a professor at the Colorado School of Mines and a consulting engineer at Exponent Inc. In 1995 Dr. Mendez co-founded Semi-Solid Technologies Inc. in the US. Prof. Mendez holds a Ph.D. and a M.S. degree in Materials Engineering MIT, and a Mechanical Engineer degree from the University of Buenos Aires. His work is known for its depth into the physics and mechanisms present in welding and additive manufacturing, and has been sponsored by companies and branches of the government in the US and Canada. He is a Fellow of the IIW, AWS, and CWBA, and has received numerous international awards and patents. His students are active leaders in the welding community worldwide.
Alisson Kwiatkowski da Silva, Dr.-Ing., is a Materials Engineer currently working at Thermo-Calc Software AB, where he develops models and application cases for Computational Materials Engineering. He also serves as a guest researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials. His research lies at the intersection of sustainability, alloy design, and computational materials science, with particular emphasis on phase transformations, corrosion behavior, and the thermodynamics and kinetics of materials. His work combines fundamental understanding of materials with computational approaches aimed at supporting the development and optimization of advanced alloys and more sustainable materials solutions.
Claudio Eduardo Aguilar Ramírez is a Metallurgical Civil Engineer and Doctor of Engineering Sciences, specializing in Materials Science and Engineering. He is a Full Professor in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (USM), Chile, with more than twenty years of experience in research, technological development, and university education. His research focuses on advanced metallic materials, powder metallurgy, high-entropy alloys, titanium-based biomaterials, sustainable metallurgy, and the valorization of mining and metallurgical residues. He has led numerous R&D projects with applications in mining, manufacturing, circular economy, and energy-related technologies, combining fundamental research with industrial innovation. He also maintains an extensive international collaboration network and serves as Scientific Director for Metals and Alloys at the International Centre for Diffraction Data in the United States.