Xavier Sauvage.
Xavier Sauvage.

The recipient of the 2019 Acta Materialia Silver Medal is Xavier Sauvage, Research Director at CNRS (National Scientific Research Center – France) and Deputy Director of the “Groupe de Physique des Matériaux” (Institute of Physics of Materials) located at the University of Rouen Normandie in France.  Dr. Sauvage will receive his Silver Medal during the 2019 TMS Spring Meeting and Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas

Xavier Sauvage graduated in mechanical engineering from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan (1993-1996) and received a master degree (1996) and a PhD degree (2001) in Physics of Materials at the University of Rouen Normandie. Here, he began to develop expertise on nanostructured metallic alloys, phase transformations, atom probe tomography and transmission electron microscopy. After a short period as a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Stuttgart, he joined the CNRS (National Scientific Research Center – France) for a research scientist position at the “Groupe de Physique des Matériaux” (Institute of Physics of Materials) located at the University of Rouen Normandie in France.

Dr. Savauge has an international reputation as an expert in the field of high resolution chemical analysis (Atom Probe Tomography and analytical Transmission Electron Microscopy) in metallic alloys and, especially, in severely deformed and nanostructured materials. He has developed a large network of international collaborators and has been leader of numerous international projects. His expertise is not limited to characterization down to the atomic scale, but also covers fundamental mechanisms of phase transformations in metallic alloys, the important role of defects and particularly those resulting from high strains. A significant part of his projects has also been dedicated to the relationships between nano-scaled features and material properties. Moreover, part of his activity was devoted to collaborations with industrial partners (Arcellor-Mital, Posco, Michelin, ACOME, Manoir Industries, Nexans). In 2016, he founded the joint research lab IPERS (“Innovation and Performance of Refractory Steels”) with the R&D Department of Manoir Pîtres. Also in 2016, he was promoted to Deputy Director of the GPM (Groupe de Physique des Matériaux), an institute with up-to-date advanced microscopy facilities (including two corrected TEMs, three dual beam SEM-FIB, four atom probes and other equipment). The GPM is organized in five departments dedicated to scientific instrumentation and material science with a total staff of about 170.

His notable research contributions include:

  • Three-dimensional atomic scale imaging of (i) co-deformation in multiphase alloys subjected to large strains leading to an understanding of the fragmentation mechanisms in the case of brittle behaviour, and (ii) strain-induced mixing in immiscible model binary systems such as Cu-Fe or Cu-Cr and understanding of the mechanisms leading to the formation of super saturated solid solutions and in metal matrix composite wires (Cu-V, Cu-Nb) processed by drawing.
  • Advancing the understanding of (i) strain-induced carbide decomposition in steels, which limits the ductility of cold drawn pearlitic steels; (ii) deformation-induced phase separation and precipitation in model binary aluminium alloys (AlZn, AlCu) and (iii) the mechanisms leading to non-equilibrium grain boundary segregations in severely deformed steels and Al alloys.

These contributions have been recognized by national and European societies: Dr. Sauvauge has been honoured in 2009 by the Société Française Métallurgie et de Matériaux (SF2M, French Metallurgy and Material Society) receiving the Jean Rist Medal and in 2010 by the Federation of European Materials Societies with the FEMS Young Lecturer Award.