Dear members and friends of IFHTSE:
I am honored to step into the role of president for our federation. Our organization has a long history of connecting heat treaters and surface engineers from around the world through academic discussion, research collaborations, and industrial advancements in our field.
Under Prof. Massimo Pellizzari’s leadership and with the unwavering support of our IFHTSE executive committee these past two years, we have seen improvements to IFHTSE communications (including the website, newsletter, social media presence) and several successful conferences held in the U.S., Canada, China, and Italy. I thank Prof. Pellizzari for his leadership and mentorship as I prepared for my new role with IFHTSE.
Additionally, I am very grateful for the advice, contributions, and guidance from the IFHTSE executive committee and governing council as we identify future opportunities for our organization. Most importantly, I thank two who have dedicated decades of service to IFHTSE and who have supported and encouraged me to take on this leadership role: Scott MacKenzie and Stefan Hock.
During the next two years, we will continue to expand opportunities for early career professionals at IFHTSE events, and we will promote collaboration and communication within the heat-treating field through international conferences, symposia, and congresses. We look forward to hearing from the friends and members of IFHTSE to learn how the organization can serve you better, and we are eager to expand our federation to more regions around the world. I’m excited to see many of you at our next World Congress in Cologne, Germany this coming fall and at several of our regional events scheduled for the coming year.
Warm Regards — Lesley D. Frame
Members in the News
Prof. Bojan Podgornik elected to Executive Committee
Prof. Bojan Podgornik was recently elected a member of the executive committee by the Governing Council. He is a researcher and head of the Metallic Materials Department at the Institute of Metals and Technology (IMT), Slovenia.
He is also actively involved in higher education as a professor in the fields of contact mechanics, tribology, heat treatment, and surface engineering. His research activities encompass heat treatment, surface engineering, tribology, additive manufacturing, and fatigue and failure analysis, with a strong emphasis on transferring fundamental research outcomes into industrial practice. He is an author of more than 200 research papers, delivered more than 60 invited lectures, contributed to eight book chapters, organized four international conferences, and holds three patents. In 2024, he was awarded the IFHTSE Fellowship.
Besides research and education, Podgornik is deeply engaged in professional societies. He serves as secretary general and treasurer of the Slovenian Society for Heat Treatment and as vice president of the Slovenian Society for Materials. He is an active member of several national and international engineering and materials-related societies, contributing to the development of strong links between the Slovenian heat-treatment and tooling industry, the national research community, and IFHTSE.
He also acts as a professional adviser within the Slovenian Strategic Research and Innovation Partnership for Materials (SRIP MATPRO), where he contributes to strengthening international collaboration, knowledge transfer and strategic links between research and industry.
Sabine Denis to receive IFHTSE Medal
Professor Sabine Denis will receive the IFHTSE Medal, as decided by the Executive Committee. The Medal will be given during the awards ceremony of the 31st IFHTSE World Congress in Cologne, Germany, October 13-15, 2026.
The citation reads: “For her lifetime achievements in numerical modeling of the interplay of temperature, phase transformations, and residual stress in heat treatment, in particular the importance of deformation and transformation plasticity.”
Denis began her career at École des Mines de Nancy with a BSc in 1977 and an MSc in 1980. In 1981, she was employed by CNRS, where she defended her thesis in 1987, whereafter she became CNRS Research Director in 1995 and later University Professor in 2001 at the Faculty of Sciences of Nancy. [MS2.1] She spent her entire education and career in the same laboratory, which became the “Laboratory of Science and Engineering of Materials and Metallurgy” (LSG2M). It later merged with the University of Lorraine in 2009 to become the Institut Jean Lamour (IJL).
Denis was one of the pioneers in the modeling of the origin of residual stresses formed during heat treatments of metal alloys with phase transformations (steels, aluminum, and titanium alloys). She made major contributions in the study of the role of transformation deformation and transformation plasticity on these stresses. In addition, micromechanical approaches have made it possible to better understand the modeling of transformation plasticity such as local stress fields in the vicinity of precipitates.
Denis was earlier awarded the IFHTSE Fellowship in 2006 “in recognition of globally acknowledged leadership in the development of mathematical modeling principles and practices and their application to the benefit and advancement of heat treatment and surface engineering science and technology.”
Conference Updates
BHTS’2026
April 16-17
Istanbul, Turkey
BHTS’2026 – the 3rd Bosphorus International Heat Treatment Symposium will be April 16-17, 2026, at the Sabancı University Performing Arts Center in Istanbul, in collaboration with the Metal Heat Treatment Industrialists Association (MISAD) and UCTEA Chamber of Metallurgical and Materials Engineers’ Training Center (METEM). The chairman of the event is Nuri Kiziltan.
The symposium will provide a comprehensive platform to discuss heat treatment, one of the strategic fields of manufacturing, considering the latest technological and scientific developments. The goal is to bring together all stakeholders, including industry leaders, engineers, researchers, academics, and end users, to exchange knowledge, build collaborations, and shape the future of the field.
For more info: info@bhtsheat.com or www.bhtsheat.com/en
7th Asian Conference on Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering
September 18-21, 2026
Chengdu, China
The 7th Asian Conference on Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering is a quality event, with typical attendance at more than 1,000 attendees. The location is very walkable, beautiful, and unique. Chengdu is the capital city of Sichuan and is noted for its spicy food and hot pots.
31st IFHTSE World Congress
October 13-15, 2026
Cologne, Germany
Organized by AWT – Arbeitsgemeinschaft Wärmebehandlung + Werkstofftechnik e. V., the 31st IFHTSE World Congress will be October 13-15, 2026, in Cologne, Germany, at the International Conference and trade fair. It will include three events: HK 2026, ECHT 2026, and the 31st IHTSE World Congress
This will truly be a huge event. If you have never attended the AWT HK (HärtereiKongress) event, this is one of the largest (if not the largest) heat treating trade show in the world. This, combined with ECHT 2026 and the 31st World Congress, will be the ONE event to attend.
This large conference is organized in cooperation with the International Federation for Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering (IFHTSE) as well as the European heat treatment associations from France, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the Benelux countries. Due to the expected number of lecture registrations, the congress event is planned as a three-day event. The language of the conference will be English.
More info: www.hk-awt.de
