Dr. Hyo-sun Jang of the Department of Computational Materials Science at the Korea Institute of Materials Science, a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, was awarded the 2021 Excellence Thesis of the Year from the International Mg Society. The thesis was acknowledged for establishing the activation mechanism of non-basal slip in multi-component magnesium alloys to improve its room temperature formability, and verifying the role of grain boundary segregation and solute clusters during recrystallization.

Magnesium, one of the lightest structural metals, comes into the spotlight as a next-generation eco-friendly material. However, poor formability at room temperature is its weakness. This issue can be improved by activating non-basal slip and alleviating the grain boundary segregation during recrystallization in the heat treatment process. Dr. Jang investigated the slip and grain boundary movement behavior in multi-component magnesium alloys, using atomic-level simulation. As a result, she confirmed that non-basal slip can be activated by minimizing the stress deviation of critical operation between slip systems. In addition, the solute cluster’s contribution to the relaxation of recrystallization texture was quantitatively suggested by calculating the effects of grain boundary segregation and solute clusters on grain boundary migration.

Dr. Hyo-sun Jang, a senior researcher at KIMS as well as an awardee of the Best Thesis of the Year, said, “The non-ferrous metal manufacturing using magnesium alloy is connected to various industries such as steel, shipbuilding, semiconductor, display, future car, and mechanical equipment. I will continue to spare no effort to research on analyzing and identifying mechanisms.”

The International Mg Association, a non-profit organization, aims to promote research, development and application of magnesium and its alloys, and to provide an academic exchange platform for researchers. The association supports holding international conferences on magnesium and to publish and releasing the research achievements, as well as regularly publishing the Journal of Magnesium and Alloys.