This presentation described a journey of exploration through our evolutionary understanding of the internal structure and performance of ultra high-strength steels. Such steels are complex microstructural systems containing a variety of crystalline phases.

The origin of these phases by various solid state transformation mechanisms and the role that each component plays in the deformation and fracture of high strength steels is described.

Dr. George Krauss is currently University Emeritus Professor at the Colorado School of Mines and a metallurgical consultant specializing in steel microstructural systems. He received the B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from Lehigh University in 1955 and the M.S. and Sc. D. degrees in Metallurgy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1958 and 1961, respectively, after working at the Superior Tube Company as a Development Engineer in 1956.

In 1962-63 he was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforshung in Düsseldorf , Germany. He served at Lehigh University as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Metallurgy and Materials Science from 1963 to 1975, and in 1975 joined the faculty of the Colorado School of Mines as the AMAX Professor of Physical Metallurgy. He was the John Henry Moore Professor of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the time of his retirement from the Colorado School of Mines in 1997.

In 1984 Dr. Krauss was a principal in the establishment of the Advanced Steel Processing and Products Research Center, an NSF industry-university cooperative research center at the Colorado School of Mines, and served as its first director until 1993. He has authored the book Steels: Heat Treatment and Processing Principles, ASM International, 1990; coauthored the book Tool Steels, Fifth Edition, ASM International, 1998; and edited or coedited several conference volumes on topics including tempering of steel, carburizing, zinc-based coatings on steel, and microalloyed forging steels. He has published over 280 papers and lectured widely at technical conferences, universities, corporations, and ASM chapters, including a number of keynote, invited, and honorary lectures.

Dr. Krauss has served as the President of the International Federation of Heat Treatment and Surface Modification, 1989-1991, and as President of ASM International, 1996-1997. He is a Fellow of ASM International, and has received the Adolf Martens Medal of the German Society for Heat Treatment and Materials Technology, the Charles S. Barrett Silver Medal of the Rocky Mountain Chapter ASM, the George Brown Gold Medal of the Colorado School of Mines, and several other professional and teaching awards, including the ASM Albert Easton White Distinguished Teacher Award in 1999. He is an Honorary Member of the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan and a Distinguished Member of the Iron and Steel Society of AIME.