The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in the UK has awarded Dr. Tridibesh Mukherjee, Tata Steel Group Director, Integration and Development, the 2008 Bessemer Gold Medal for his service to the steel industry.
The Institute exists to promote and develop all aspects of materials science and engineering, geology, mining and associated technologies, mineral and petroleum engineering and extraction metallurgy and is the professional body for the international materials, minerals and mining community. It awards a number of medals and prizes to recognise achievement within the profession, of which one of the most prestigious is the Bessemer Gold Medal for outstanding services to the steel industry.
Dr. Mukherjee has served as Chairman the International Iron and Steel Institute´s Technology Committee for three years to 2007. His contribution in the use of technology, as a means to competitiveness is recognised internationally.
Dr. Mukherjee worked for British Steel from 1968 to 1971. He then
joined Tata Steel in 1971 and rose to Deputy Managing Director (Steel).
As Group Director now, he is responsible for Integration and R&D
and Technology.
The award will be presented at a dinner on 2 July in London. Dr. Mukherjee will deliver the Bessemer Lecture this year.
Previous winners of the award include Mr. J. R. D. Tata (1986), Mr. Stuart Pettifor (formerly COO of Corus, 2005), Sir Brian Moffat (formerly Chairman of British Steel, 1996) and Mr. Lakshmi Mittal (President and CEO, ArcelorMittal, 2007).
The title of Dr Mukherjee's Lecture is
Technology: Evolution and Mutation
Abstract
The iron and steel technology has evolved over ages. In the
medieval period, the "Hindoos" made steel for half a million dollars a
tonne. It was a metal for aggression. Now 1.3 billion tonnes are
produced to sustain the physical fabric of our civilisation. This
transition has seen production processes evolving, mutating and
becoming extinct. Ingots made room for slabs which today co-exists with
thin slabs, which itself is worried about thin strips gaining ground.
The Huntsman process is forgotten. The Bessemer converter and the open
hearth process, supreme till the middle of the twentieth century, find
place in the history of steel making! The blast furnace, which made its
appearance in the fifteenth century, did not meet the same fate. Today
many blast furnaces are under construction. This paper discusses what
could be behind the longevity of some technologies.