Briefly:

George Vander Voort, principal of Vander Voort Consulting and consultant to Struers Inc., is a graduate of Drexel and Lehigh Universities. Drexel presented George with the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2005 and the Service to the Profession Award in 2016. He had 29 years’ experience in the steel industry. A past president of the International Metallographic Society and past chairman of ASTM Committee E-4 on Metallography, George has over 438 publications, 6 patents, 445 lectures in 42 countries, a video course, and 7 ASTM standards. Dedicated to technical education to improve the industry, he has taught 269 seminars and courses and has received 36 awards in metallography contests. He was a trustee for ASM International and is on the editorial boards of Praktische Metallographie/Practical Metallography; Metallography, Microstructure and Analysis; Image Analysis and Stereology; and, the International Journal of Microstructure and Materials Properties. He is a Fellow of ASTM International, ASM International and the International Federation of Heat Treatment and Surface Engineers. As a consultant, George specializes in metallography, failure analysis, and archeometallurgy. He is also a court-certified expert witness in litigations involving failures of metallic components. He is a Fellow and Honorary Life Member of Alpha Sigma Mu metallurgy and materials science honorary society and an honorary member of the Polish Society for Stereology.

Publications or Significant Accomplishments:

1. Member of the American Society for Testing and Materials, ASTM (now ASTM International), including a member of committees E-4 on Metallography and E-28 on Mechanical Testing. He served as second and first vice-chairman of E-4 and a four-year term as chairman of E-4 and chaired two international symposia for ASTM E-4. He is a fellow of ASTM. (1966 to present)
2. Instructor, “Ferrous Physical Metallurgy”, Pennsylvania State University (Allentown campus). (1969-1977)
3. Active with International Metallographic Society (IMS), including serving as president form 1981 to 1983. (1973 to present)
4. Adjunct Faculty Member, ASM Metals Engineering Institute/Materials Engineering Institute. (1977 to present)
5. Adjunct Faculty Member, “Optical Metallography”, (Met 319), Lehigh University. (Spring 1981)
6. Series editor of Microstructural Science and chair or co-chair of 10 symposia. (1983-1989)
7. Chairman of E.04.14 on Quantitative Metallography where he developed and wrote 9 standards for both manual and automated quantitative metallographic measurements.  (1982-1998)
8. Instructor of several courses, workshops, seminars and presentations, including “Metallography and Failure Analysis,” United Technologies Research Center, E. Hartford, CT (December 4-8, 1989); “DST-TAP Foundry Course on Metallography, Interpretation and Measurement of Microstructure and Fractures,” Mintek, Randburg, South Africa (June 6-10, 2011); and “Post Conference Metallography Workshop,” Ferrous 2012 – Ferrous and base Metals Development Network Conference, 5 lectures (October 18, 2012), South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Mount Grace Country House & Spa, Magaliesburg, South Africa (October 18, 2012); and 87 one-week courses for ASM’s Metals Engineering Institute (MEI), 117 courses for Buehler, and 65 for other societies, companies and universities. (445 lectures in 42 countries; spoken 84 times at 52 ASM chapters)
9. Principle author of 438 publications, including Metallography: Principles and Practice (orig. pub. date, 1989; ASM Int’l pub date, 1999), Buehler’s Guide to Material’s Preparation; editor of 18 books; author of 29 articles in various editions of ASM Metals Handbook series.Produced 11 of the 14 videotapes in the ASM video course, Principles of Metallography.
10. Author of 7 ASTM standards.
11. Holds 6 patents.
12. Developed micrographs used within or on the covers of over 180 books, magazines, newsletters, brochures or calendars.
13. U.S. representative to the International Standards Organization, ISO, sub-committee on tests other than chemical and mechanical (SC 7 of TC 17). He revised two ISO standards and wrote one new standard. (1989 – 2014)
14. Received IMS President’s Award. (1987)
15. Received the ASTM Award of Merit. (1987)
16. Founded Vander Voort Consulting LLC (now principal and president). (1990)
17. Received the Anthony DeBellis Memorial Award from ASTM E-28 for his work on microindentation hardness testing. (1990)
18. Hired by Nuclear Regulatory Commission to assess the metallographic study performed at Argonne National Laboratory and Idaho Falls National Engineering Laboratory on the lower head of Unit 3 nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island site that failed in 1979. (1993)
19. Received the Bradley Stoughton Award of the Lehigh Valley Chapter of ASM. (1993)
20. Associate editor of Materials Characterization. (1994-2004)
21. Member of the editorial boards of La Metallurgia Italiana, Praktische Metallographie/Practical Metallography, and the Int’l Journal of Microstructure and Materials Properties.
22. Received 36 awards for work in metallography contests, including the Jacquet-Lucas Grand Prize. (1992)
23. Received the L.L. Wyman Memorial Award from E-4. (1994)
24. Examined heavily eroded structural steel from the World Trade Center for FEMA after the 9/11 attack to determine the reasons for the severe deterioration, particularly for Building 7 which was not impacted by the terrorists. (2001)
25. Worked on several cases such as semi-submersible and fixed oil drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, locomotive axles that broke and caused derailments, collapsed Loran Towers, and others. He is a court-certified expert witness in microstructural aspects of failures.
26. Received Henry Clifton Sorby Award. (2004)
27. Received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Drexel University. (2005)
28. Received the Roland Mitsche prize of the Montanuniversitat Leoben (Austria) for his contributions to metallography. (2006)
29. Honors received: Distinguished Life Member and Fellow of Alpha Sigma Mu honorary scholastic society for materials science majors (2008); elected to the board in 2009 and became vice president in 2011; September 2009 issue of Practical Metallography was dedicated to George’s 65th birthday.
30. Received the J.R. Vilella Award for his revision of Vol. 9 of the ASM Handbook, Metallography and Microstructures (2004 edition). (2006)
31. Materials Scientist, Struer, Inc.. (2010 to present)
32. Received the Service to Our Profession Award from Drexel University. (2016)

Links to Online Resources (a select list)

• “Metallography of Iron-Nickel Meteorites”, VAC AERO INTERNATIONAL, June 5, 2018
• “Microstructure of Isothermally-Treated Steels”, VAC AERO INTERNATIONAL, April 6, 2018
• “Results of Interlaboratory Test Programs to Assess the Precision of Inclusion Ratings by Methods A, C, and D of ASTM E45”, Materials Performance and Characterization, ASTM International, September 2016.
• “Conducting the Failure Examination”, VAC AERO INTERNATIONAL, February 8, 2016
• “Metallographic Examination of Medical Implants”, VAC AERO INTERNATIONAL, December 8, 2015
• “LASER Additive Manufacturing of Titanium-Tantalum Alloy Structured Interfaces for Modular Orthopedic Devices”, with Jacob Fuerst, Dana Medlin, and Michael, JOM: the journal of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, April 2015
• “Selective Etching and Quantitative Measurements Used to Assess the Thermal Exposure to the Lower Head of the Three-Mile Island Unit 2 Nuclear Reactor”, VAC AERO INTERNATIONAL, December 5, 2014
• “Measurement of Grain Shape Uniformity”, Praktische Metallographie, May 2014
• “Fracture of a 17th Century Japanese Helmet”, VAC AERO INTERNATIONAL, April 7, 2014
• “Obtaining Consistent Vickers Hardness at Loads ≤ 100 Grams Force”, VAC AERO INTERNATIONAL, December 6, 2013
• “Methanol Pipeline Failure in the Canyon Express Pipeline System”, VAC AERO INTERNATIONAL, June 17, 2013
• “Measurement of Grain Size in Twinned FCC Alloys”, VAC AERO INTERNATIONAL, September 24, 2012
• “Introduction to Stereological Principles”, VAC AERO INTERNATIONAL, December 7, 2011
• “Picric Acid – Hazards & Safe Usage”, VAC AERO INTERNATIONAL, July 29, 2011
• “In-situ recrystallisation of Ni”, with David Geisser and Lawrence Murr, Praktische Metallographie, August 2006
• “Color Metallography”, Microscopy and Microanalysis, Agusut 2004
• “Trends in Specimen Preparation”, Metal Progress, February 2000
• “Influence of magnification on feature-specific image analysis measurements”, Metallography, August 1988
• “Phase Identification by Selective Etching”, in: Vander Voort G.F. (eds) Applied Metallography. Springer, Boston, MA, January 1986
• “Inclusion Measurement”, in: McCall J.L., French P.M. (eds) Metallography as a Quality Control Tool. Springer, Boston, 1980

References (partial list):

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