Dr. Brian Thomas Delivered Award-Winning AIST Elliott Lecture at CIVS
CIVS welcomed internationally recognized professor and researcher Dr. Brian Thomas for a Distinguished Speaker Seminar that brought together more than 70 PNW and CIVS faculty, staff, students, and industry collaborators on Monday on September 14. Dr. Thomas, the 2026 recipient of the prestigious AIST John F. Elliott Lecture Award, delivered a presentation titled “Opportunities for the Implementation of Process Models in the Steel Industry.” During the two-hour seminar, he offered both technical depth and practical insight. The seminar also featured an engaging Q&A session, followed by group discussions with CIVS researchers. These exchanges provided participants with an excellent opportunity to explore technical challenges, research methodologies, and practical applications with Dr. Thomas, who has more than 40 years of experience developing and applying process models for continuous casting in the steel industry. Attendees from a wide range of academic and industry backgrounds gained valuable perspectives not only on steel process modeling, but also on effective approaches to conducting applied, industry-focused research.
“It was an incredible opportunity to hear Professor Brian G. Thomas speak on opportunities for implementing process models in the steel industry. Learning from such a distinguished professor and leader in the industry provided valuable insight into how these tools can help advance the future of steelmaking.” – Jacob Schulman.
“I really enjoyed Brian’s examples and the way he used cartoons to explain complex physical processes. The seminar gave me a better understanding of verification and validation, especially how benchmark experiments are used to evaluate whether a model is reliable and representative of the real process. I also found the idea of defining an operating window rather than a single optimum very useful.” -Dianzhi Meng
Dr. Thomas’s seminar focused on how can process models improve steel production and quality? He introduced the development, verification, calibration, validation and implementation of process models, and describe how tremendous advances in computing power have transformed computational modeling since its early beginnings in the 1970s. Examples from steelmaking were included to illustrate the application of fluid flow, chemical reactions, heat transfer and stress modeling to processes such as ladle refining, tundish metallurgy, continuous casting and hot rolling. Process models are used to design new processes; troubleshoot defects; improve product quality, scale-up and on-line control; and provide insights that cannot be obtained through plant measurements alone. Exciting new opportunities using emerging modeling tools such as machine learning and artificial intelligence were also explored. Hi stalk was concluded with a perspective on the future of process modeling and the important role that the next generation of engineers will play in shaping the steel industry.
Dr. Thomas was selected for the award for his outstanding contributions to the field of continuous casting as an academic process metallurgist, teacher and researcher. Thomas is internationally recognized for his leadership in the mathematical modeling of the continuous casting process, particularly in developing models that illuminate the relationships between processing conditions, microstructure and product quality. His enduring career as an engaging, insightful and influential educator has made a lasting global impact on the steel industry. Dr. Brian G. Thomas is research professor and Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, and director of the Continuous Casting Center. He is also Gauthier Professor of Mechanical Engineering Emeritus and Research Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). His research efforts focus on computational modeling of continuous casting of steel and related processes. Thomas is a Distinguished Member and Fellow of AIST, Honorary Member of AIME, Fellow of ASM International, and Baosteel Honorary Professor. He has coauthored over 450 papers and given over 250 presentations worldwide and co-instructed many short courses to industry, including the annual Brimacombe Continuous Casting Course.
