Spark Plasma Sintering : Current Status, New Developments and Challenges

Giacomo Cao got his Master Degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Cagliari in February 1986 and his PhD also in Chemical Engineering at the University of Bologna in 1990. He became Assistant Professor in 1990, Associate Professor in 1992 and Full Professor in 2001. He has been visiting scholar at the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, USA, in 1988, 1991 and 1992 and research associate at the same University in 1993. He has been the co-author of more than 190 papers in refereed journals, 3 books, 2 edited book, 19 papers in refereed conference proceedings, 12 patents and 20 book chapters. He has been recognized as one of the 50 world leaders in Self-propagating High-temperature Synthesis (SHS) in October 2007. Since October 2013, he is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Legal Representative of the Sardinian AeroSpace District (DASS) Scarl. Since November 2016, he has been included in the list of the Top Italian Scientists.

Claude Estournès got his PhD in material Science at the University of Bordeaux in 1992, he was assistant Professor from 1992 to 2004 at the chemical engineering School at the University of Strasbourg, then he joined the CNRS in Toulouse. He has been visiting professor at the Dept. of Mechanical, Chemical and Material Engineering, University of Cagliari, Italy, in 2015. He is co-author of 192 publications (Scopus source: >5300 citations - h-index 41), of about 91 and 43 invited conferences and seminars, 18 patents +11 PCT. In 2013, he received the Pfeil Award from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. From 2004 to 2016 he was the Scientific Coordinator of the CNRS National Platform on Spark Plasma Sintering (PNF2/CNRS). Between 2008 and 2011, he was the Director of the national research group on Spark Plasma Sintering and from 2016 to 2018 Head of the team ”Nanocomposites and Carbon Nanotubes” (NNC) at CIRIMAT. He was the Chairman of the 2nd and 3rd International Workshop on Spark Plasma Sintering held respectively in Capbreton 2011 and Toulouse 2014. In 2016, He is cofounder of the spin-off Norimat.
The main activities of Claude Estournès are devoted to the synthesis, preparation and densification of materials (with nano and micro scales, composite, multilayered system, ceramic, polymer, glass etc.…) by "Spark Plasma sintering" technology and to the development of novel, specific and multi-functional architectures to tailor specific properties.

Javier Garay, Ph.D. is the principal investigator of a vibrant experimental laboratory called the Advanced Material Processing and Synthesis (AMPS) Lab. Research in the AMPS Lab focuses on advanced material processing and synthesis with particular emphasis on designing the micro/nanostructure of bulk materials for property optimization. Professor Garay received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (1999), M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering (2002) and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering (2004) all from the University of California, Davis. He joined the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego in 2015. Prior to that he was a professor of Materials Science & Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at UC Riverside where he also served as Chair of the Materials Science & Engineering Program from 2012-2015. Professor Garay has received two federal Young Investigator Program (YIP) awards: Army Research Office (ARO-YIP) in 2005 and Air Force Office for Scientific Research (AFOSR-YIP) in 2009. He also received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation in 2010.

Roberto Orrù received his Master Degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Cagliari in 1991 and his PhD degree in Metallurgical Engineering at the Polytechnic of Torino in 1997. He became Assistant Professor in 1998, Associate Professor in 2002 and Full Professor in 2014. He has been visiting scholar and visiting scientist for about 2 years at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California, Davis, USA, during in 1996-1999. His scientific activity is documented by about 120 papers published in peer-reviewed journals (Scopus source, Jan. 2019: >2500 citations), 9 patents, books, book chapters, and over 150 presentations at national and international conferences. His current H-index is 27 (Scopus source, Jan. 2019). He is Editorial Board Member of “Eurasian Chemico-Technological Journal“ and “ISRN Chemical Engineering”. He is currently responsible for the International PhD in "Innovation Sciences and Technologies", University of Cagliari, Italy.
Main research interests are the synthesis and sintering of advanced materials and chemical reaction engineering. Roberto Orrù has been mainly involved in the investigation of "Spark Plasma Sintering", "Combustion Synthesis", and "Ball Milling" processes from both the theoretical and the experimental points of view.