MPIF’s Vanguard Award to be presented to Robert J Dowding
March 24, 2014
Robert J Dowding, Research Manager for Materials and Manufacturing Science, U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL), has been selected to receive the first ever Vanguard Award from the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF). The award presentation will take place at the PM2014 World Congress, May 18-22, in Orlando, Florida, USA.
Robert J Dowding will receive
the MPIF Vanguard Award
The new award from the MPIF recognises Powder Metallurgy (PM) industry champions from the end-user community whose long-time promotion of the technology has contributed to the expansion of PM applications.
During Dowding’s career at ARL much of his PM based research and development work has been related to material and process development for tungsten and tungsten alloys. He has personally performed research examining strain aging in tungsten heavy alloys (WHA), the processing of novel tungsten-based compositions, and the re-spheroidisation of tungsten grains in heavily cold-worked WHAs.
Dowding has been a strong leader in, and supporter of, the US Army’s Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program, his involvement dating back to the program’s very first days in the mid-1980s. As the contracting officer’s technical representative (COTR) for more than 35 Phase I and Phase II contracts, his efforts have been leveraged to support multiple mission programs in the materials science and manufacturing of protection- and lethality-related applications. He has also advanced critical mission programs in Powder Metallurgy, tungsten research, nanomaterials, armour ceramics, and Powder Injection Moulding (PIM).
