KEYNOTE AND PLENARY SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED FOR QNDE 2007

The 34th Annual Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation will be held at the  Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, July 22-27, 2007.  As is customary for this meeting, a broad scope of papers – about 350 in number – that detail research advanced in all aspects of quantitative NDE will be presented in both verbal and poster sessions.  The Review is also pleased to present the fifth annual Student Poster Competition, a competition that was initiated to encourage student participation in the evolving NDE disciplines.  A spouse/guest program is also planned.  Papers presented at the Review will be published in the Proceedings of the Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation.  The Review is organized by the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation at Iowa State University and sponsored by QNDE Programs with welcome assistance from the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Ames Laboratory of the Department of Energy, the American Society of Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Center

                                        The opening session of the 34th Annual Review of Progress in
                                        Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation will consist of three lectures that
                                        focus on emerging needs in materials characterization by NDE.  The
                                        Keynote lecture, to be presented by David Olson and Victor
                                        Kaydanov of the Colorado School of Mines and Alex Landau of the
                                        Nuclear Research Center in Israel, will examine interdisciplinary
                                        fundamentals that are presenting new opportunities in NDE.  Included
                                        will be a discussion of new levels of understanding of condensed matter
                                        behavior and improved instrumentation that afford new opportunities to
                                        approach demanding integrity problems such as monitoring materials
                                        aging and predicting the properties of complex, engineered materials.
                                        Among the factors considered will be the ways in which combinations
                                        of measurements can be used to reduce the traditional limitations of
                                        correlating microstructure and mechanical properties with
                                        nondestructive measurements.

The two plenary lectures that follow will deal with specific application needs of the aerospace and automotive industries.  Jeffrey Kollgaard and Stephen LaRiviere of the Boeing Company will discuss new NDE challenges associated with future commercial aircraft.  Included will be a discussion of the needs introduced by advanced materials such as composites and the opportunity to drive NDE up the value stream to understand the relationship of various process parameters to product quality.  The challenges of rapidly gaining information about large areas will be discussed.  Cameron Dasch of General Motors will then discuss the role of NDE in bringing new materials for lightweight automobiles into production.  Focus will be placed on the tremendous change that the automotive industry is facing, which is almost a perfect storm of changing governmental and market requirements related to fuel economy, carbon dioxide emissions and crash and safety performance.  The result is the increased use of highly engineered materials that must enter the marketplace in shorter time at low cost and with high reliability.  The role of NDE in the process will be reviewed, including some applications now in production as well as current needs driven by the factors mentioned above.

The three talks should provide an excellent summary of new directions and needs in the rapidly changing area of materials characterization.

This conference has been recognized as one of the most important conferences for researchers, students, and practitioners of NDE to attend.  It provides a friendly and conducive format for technical exchange between all concerned with the subject.  Pre-conference registration at a reduced rate is available until JUNE 29, 2007.  To view the preliminary programs and for more conference details go to the QNDE web site at http://www.cnde.iastate.edu/QNDE/QNDE/html or contact Heidi Long at heidil@cnde.iastate.edu.