Olaf Kessler Editor

George E. Totten, Ph.D, FASM, is the President and Founder of G.E. Totten & Associates, LLC, Seattle, Washington, USA. He has more than 31 years of experience in the heat treating and fluids/lubricants industry. His most recent work has focused on metalworking quenchants (heat treating), hydraulic fluids technology, and lubricant formulation and testing. Widely published, Dr. Totten has worked extensively within SAE International, ASM International, and ASTM International committees. He is also past president of the International Federation for Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering (IFHTSE).

Murat Tiryakioglu grew up in a foundry business in Istanbul, Turkey. He received his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering with emphasis on Metallurgy and Manufacturing Engineering from Bogazici University in 1990. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Engineering Management from the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) in 1991 and 1993, respectively. He received another Ph.D. in 2002, from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, on Metallurgy and Materials. Dr. Tiryakioglu is also Certified as a Quality Engineer (CQE) by the American Society for Quality (ASQ). He worked at the Boeing Company, in Wichita, Kansas briefly before moving on to academic life in 1995. He taught at Western Kentucky University (WKU) where he founded the Advanced Manufacturing Institute, and later at Robert Morris University (Pittsburgh, PA) where he served as a University (Distinguished) Professor of manufacturing engineering, where he was recognized for his service-learning activities involving local manufacturers. Dr. Tiryakioglu started his current position as the Director of School of Engineering at the University of North Florida in 2010. Since joining UNF, Dr. Tiryakioglu has collaborated with Community Excellence Alliance to involve engineering students in problem solving and continuous improvement methods and their applications to help solve issues in non-profit organization in Jacksonville.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Olaf Kessler finished his Diploma studies in Production Engineering at the University of Bremen, Germany in 1989. Afterwards he started his scientific career at the Foundation Institute for Materials Science, Bremen, Germany under the supervision of Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Peter Mayr. He achieved his Doctorate degree as Dr.-Ing. at the University of Bremen in 1995 and his postdoctoral lecture qualification as Dr.-Ing. habil. at the University of Bremen in 2003. Following he established and headed the group of Lightweight Materials at the Foundation Institute for Materials Science, Bremen. Prof. Kessler has been appointed as a full professor for Materials Science at the University of Rostock, Germany in 2007. He is member of the executive committee of the Competence Center for Calorimetry and Thermal Analysis (CALOR) at the University of Rostock, Germany. He has about 20 years of experience in manufacturing, especially heat treatment, as well as microstructure analysis and properties characterization of metals, particularly aluminum alloys.