Additive Manufacturing of Metals: From Complex Alloys to Simple Alloys
Distinguished Research Seminar Series
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Date
09 Dec 2025
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Organiser
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, PolyU
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Time
10:00 - 11:30
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Venue
DE308
Speaker
Prof. Wen Chen
Remarks
If you have enquiries regarding E-certificate after the seminar, please contact david.kuo@polyu.edu.hk.
Summary
The growing demand for materials that operate in extreme environments is driving the development of metal alloys with increasingly complex chemistries. However, synthesis and processing of complex alloys via conventional routes are challenging. Additive manufacturing, also called 3D printing, is a disruptive technology for creating materials and components in a single print. Harnessing the vast compositional space of complex alloys and the far-from-equilibrium processing conditions (e.g., large thermal gradients and high cooling rates) of additive manufacturing provides a paradigm-shifting pathway for material design. In this talk, I will present the potential of utilizing laser additive manufacturing and direct ink writing to produce metal alloys with engineered structural hierarchy across multiple length scales. These unique microstructures give rise to exceptional mechanical and functional properties that extend far beyond those accessible by conventional manufacturing. In addition, I will discuss the abundant opportunities enabled by additive manufacturing for high-throughput materials discovery and design of alloys with reduced compositional complexity toward sustainable metallurgy.
Keynote Speaker
Prof. Wen Chen
Associate Professor
Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern California, USA
Dr. Wen Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). Before joining USC in Jan 2025, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He earned a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Nanjing University of Science and Technology (2008), an M.Phil in Industrial and Systems Engineering from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2011), and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science from Yale University (2015), followed by postdoctoral research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His research spans advanced manufacturing, mechanical behavior of materials, physical metallurgy, and architected materials. He has received the NSF CAREER Award, SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, TMS Young Professional Leaders Award, and the Barbara H. and Joseph I. Goldstein Outstanding Junior Faculty Award. He serves as an Associate Editor for Materials Futures and Scientific Reports. Dr. Chen holds 6 U.S. patents and has published more than 100 papers in leading journals, including Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Communications, andNature, Nature Materials, Nature Communications, . In 2023, he was recognized by the journal Matter as a rising star in materials science.
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