University of Illinois Professor wins National Award for steel research

Stanley Ihedigbo

Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST) Foundation has announced Jean-Charles Stinville of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) as the winner of the 10th Kent D. Peaslee Junior Faculty Award (KDP JFA).

This award, which includes US$150,000 in funding, was established in 2013 in honor and memory of Kent D. Peaslee for his unequaled passion for teaching and promoting the steel industry to students, faculty members, and steel industry personnel.

His achievements forged a legacy of encouragement to all those dedicated to advancing the technical development, production, processing, and application of iron and steel.

The purpose of this award is to increase the number of younger engineering professors with a vested interest in the iron and steel industry.

The award, open to all technical engineering disciplines, will assist junior faculty in building their research and professional service activities toward obtaining tenure.

The award will provide funding to help younger professors become better informed about the steel industry, provide seed money for steel-related research projects, develop relationships between university and industry personnel, and recruit more students for employment in the steel industry.

The funding will be paid in annual increments of US$50,000 over three years.

Stinville teaches materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Ill., USA.

As per the requirements of the grant award, Stinville will work with two mentors, one from academia and one from the steel industry.

From academia, Stinville will be working with Nilesh Kumar, University of Alabama, and from the industry, he will be working with Matthew Enloe, Steel Dynamics Inc., and Drew Kofahl, Nucor Corp.

“It is a great honor to receive the Kent D. Peaslee Junior Faculty Award from AIST. I am excited to develop new initiatives between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the iron and steel industry, aiming to renew metallurgy research and initiatives at UIUC, which has a historically strong legacy in this field,” Stinville said.

In additional news, 2023–2024 KDP JFA recipients Mario Buchely, Missouri University of Science and Technology, and Monserrat Sofia López-Cornejo, Instituto Tecnológico de Morelia, were each renewed for continuation for the 2024–2025 academic year.

Past KDP JFA recipients include, are Mingzhi Xu, Georgia Southern University; Nilesh Kumar, University of Alabama; Paul Lynch, Penn State University – Behrend,  Bryan Webler, Carnegie Mellon University; Laura Bartlett, Missouri University of Science and Technology; Paul G. Sanders, Michigan Technological University; Emmanuel De Moor, Colorado School of Mines and Jingjing Qing, Georgia Southern University.

These past KDP JFA recipients are currently AIST Foundation Steel Professors.

Each professor receives US$5,000 per year to maintain a formal link to encourage their continued engagement with the steel industry.

The AIST Foundation is a Pennsylvania-based 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation organized for charitable, educational, and scientific purposes to attract technology-oriented professionals to the steel industry by educating the public about the high-tech, diverse, and rewarding nature of careers in steel manufacturing.

Through a variety of programs, the AIST Foundation awards more than US$1,000,000 annually in programs and grants to students, instructors, and schools to ensure the iron and steel industry of tomorrow will have a sufficient number of qualified professionals.

AIST is a non-profit technical association of 17,500 members from 70 countries with the mission to advance the technical development, production, processing, and application of iron and steel.
The organization is recognized as a global leader in networking, education, and sustainability programs for advancing iron and steel technology.