Randall German to receive MPIF’s PM Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr Randall (Rand) German, FAPMI, founder of German Materials Technology, has been selected to receive the Kempton H. Roll Powder Metallurgy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF). The award will be presented during WorldPM2020, World Congress on Powder Metallurgy & Particulate Materials, in Montreal, Canada, at the Opening General Session on Sunday, June 28.
MPIF stated that German has distinguished himself through his research and teaching of the net-shape fabrication of engineering materials via sintering-based processes. He has promoted the growth of Powder Metallurgy technology, in particular Powder Injection Moulding, during his fifty-year career through his involvement in twelve start-up companies, supervising well over a hundred graduate and post-doctoral students, and prolific PM industry publications. German has also been an active member in APMI International, the American Society for Metals, and the American Ceramics Society.
After completing his bachelor’s degree in material science and engineering at San José State University, German began his PM industry career at Battelle Lab, Columbus, Ohio, prior to joining Sandia National Labs (SNL). He obtained his master’s degree in metallurgical engineering from The Ohio State University and his PhD in engineering at the University of California—Davis before taking a Director of Research position at Mott Corporation, Farmington, Connecticut.
German’s nearly forty-year academic career began in 1980 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where he earned the Hunt Chair while teaching and conducting research. In 1991, he accepted a position at The Pennsylvania State University where he became the Brush Chair Professor in Materials and the Director of the Center for Innovative Sintered Products (CISP) before retiring as an emeritus professor.
In 2005, he became the inaugural director for the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) at Mississippi State University prior to joining San Diego State University in 2008 as Associate Dean for Engineering Research until 2013.
German has published twenty books and has twenty-five patents. He has shared his expertise at the MPIF’s Powder Injection Molding tutorials since 1990, and co-chaired over thirty conferences. German received the MPIF Distinguished Service to PM Award in 1993 and was one of the first APMI members to be awarded the prestigious APMI International Fellow Award in 1998. He received an honorary doctorate from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and fellow awards from two additional technical societies.
The Lifetime Achievement Award, named in honour of Kempton H. Roll, founding Executive Director of MPIF, was established in 2007 in order to recognise individuals with outstanding accomplishments and achievements who have devoted their careers and a lifetime of involvement in the field of PM and related technologies. This will only be the fourth time the award has been given since its inception.
