Nikolas Provatas is a professor of physics at McGill University and holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Computational Materials Science. He is also the Scientific Director of the McGill High Performance Computing Centre. From 2001-2012, he was a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at McMaster University. His research uses high-performance computing, dynamic adaptive mesh refinement techniques, condensed matter physics and experimentation to understand the fundamental origins of nano-microstructure pattern formation in non-equilibrium phase transformations, and the role of microstructure in materials processes. He has made numerous scientific contributions to the understanding of length scale selection in dendritic solidification and meta-stable phase formation in solid-state transformations in metal alloys.
Nana Ofori-Opoku is a Research Scientist at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ltd. He received his doctorate in materials science from McMaster University, where he explored computational models for microstructure evolution in materials. He did his postdoctoral work at McGill University, followed by a NIST-CHiMaD fellowship at Northwestern University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His research continues to develop theoretical and computational tools to study microstructure evolution in nuclear materials and the dynamics of phase transformations.
Tatu Pinomaa is a Senior Scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. He received his doctor of science (tech) degree from Aalto University (Finland), where he developed phase field modeling techniques to investigate rapid solidification microstructures in metal additive manufacturing conditions. In his current research, he combines various computational approaches to predict the formation, evolution, and micromechanical response of metallic microstructures for industrial applications.
