PITTSBURGH, Pa. — The Association for Iron & Steel Technology Foundation announced Timothy C. Eisele of Michigan Technological University the winner of the 2019-2020 Steel Curriculum Development Grant. Eisele will receive $25,000 over the course of three years.

Established in 2005, the Steel Curriculum Development Grant’s goal is to increase the number of students studying a steel-related curriculum in North America, and to increase the number of students electing to pursue careers in the iron and steel industry upon graduation. The grant provides selected professors the opportunity to establish their own projects as long as the steel industry’s role or visibility in the professor’s course curriculum and/or other programs is enhanced.

Prof. Eisele teaches CM/MSE 4740 – Hydrometallurgy/Pyrometallurgy at Michigan Technological University. He plans to develop this course further to provide more up-to-date information on steelmaking, and to construct an apparatus to be used for a course laboratory exercise to give the students some experience with electric arc furnaces and determination of slag properties. He also intends to invite former students who have become steel industry experts to give guest lectures; information that they provide will be used to enhance the instructional materials used in the course.

“I’m ecstatic to find out that AIST Foundation is willing to support me in this project. I teach a course in extracted metallurgy, which has a substantial steelmaking component. I had submitted the grant application initially so I could produce a better model illustrating how steel is made. This includes building a small electric arc furnace that the students can actually work with and also bringing industry people to the Upper Peninsula to talk with the students about what it’s like to work in the steel industry,” Eisele said.

In addition to Eisele, four other university professors will receive continuing funding as part of their Steel Curriculum Grants:

• 2015 — Dr. Gerald R. Bourne, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colo., USA

• 2016 — David F. Bahr, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., USA

• 2017 — Dr. Bernardo Hernandez-Morales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico, D.F., Mexico

• 2018 — Dr. Paul C. Lynch, Pennsylvania State University-Behrend, Erie, Pa., USA

The AIST Foundation is a Pennsylvania-based 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation organized for charitable, education and scientific purposes to attract technology-oriented professionals to the steel industry by educating the public about the high-tech, diverse and rewarding nature of careers in steel manufacturing. Through a variety of programs, the AIST Foundation awards more than $750,000 annually in programs and grants to students, instructors and schools to ensure the iron and steel industry of tomorrow will have a sufficient number of qualified professionals.

AIST is a non-profit technical association of 17,500 members from 70 countries, with the mission to advance the technical development, production, processing and application of iron and steel. The organization is recognized as a global leader in networking, education and sustainability programs for advancing iron and steel technology.