European Oxide Scale Conference 2026

Dr Didier Farrugia

Scientific Fellow, Tata Steel Research Innovation Limited (TSRIL)

Didier Farrugia is a Scientific Fellow at Tata Steel Research Innovation Limited (TSRIL) within Tata Steel UK and a fellow of the Institute of Materials , Minerals and Mining (IOM3). After graduating with a PhD at the CEMEF-Mines Paris tech in 1990, he has worked more than 36 years in the Steel RD industry where his research activities include metal forming, mechanics of materials, thermo-mechanical processing of steels, alloy design and through process manufacturing and control focusing on surface and bulk state optimisation. He is the author, and co-author of more than 100 scientific papers and one book on oxide scale behaviour in high temperature processing. In 2008, he was awarded the IOM3 Dowding Medal and Prize for his work on roll pass design of long products. He is the chair, founder and organiser of the Oxi Conference having established this event in 2014.

Prof Michael Schütze

Consultant, DECHEMA-Forschungsinstitut and MSSC

Education in Materials Science, PhD RWTH Aachen University 1983, Ext. Professor RWTH 1998, DECHEMA-Forschungsinstitut (DFI) since 1978, Director of DFI 1996-2017, Scientific Advisor to DFI since 2017, Scientific Consulting Agency MSSC since 2017.

Dr John Hinton

Senior Process Metallurgist, Primetals Technologies Limited

Dr John Hinton is a Senior Process Metallurgist at Primetals Technologies Ltd. in Sheffield, UK. He has 15 years’ experience in academic steel research and metallurgical plant solutions for the steel and aluminium industries. He has key expertise on through process physical metallurgical issues during steel production, particularly final structure property relationships, surface quality and the electromagnetic measurement of changes in steel metallurgy.

Michal Pohanka

Head of Laboratory, Brno University of Technology

Research and development in the field of heat transfer with a focus on the metallurgical and engineering industries. Head of the laboratoty and leading research groups in grant and industrial projects. Participation in European and national projects. Three of RFCS projects were focusing on descaling: HiPerScale, HiHetRod, and ReduHeatLoss. Development of inverse heat conduction problems for computation of boundary conduction conditions. Teaching doctoral studies and leading dissertations, diploma and bachelor theses. Supervisor in doctoral study program.

Martin Wunde

VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut GmbH (BFI)

Martin Wunde is the Head of the Surface Technology Department at the VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut GmbH (BFI). He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Applied Materials Science from the Technische Hochschule Georg Agricola (THGA) in Bochum and earned his Master of Science in Metallurgy and Metal Forming from the University of Duisburg-Essen in September 2018. Since 2012, Martin has been a dedicated researcher at BFI, focusing his expertise on scale formation on steels, coating systems to influence scale properties, and hydromechanical descaling. In October 2018, he transitioned into his current leadership role, where he drives innovative research and technological advancements in industrial surface processing.

 

Martin is part of the OXI Conference organising technical Committee and will deliver its keynote on High pressure water descaling: mechanisms, process parameters, and the impact off future CO2-free reheating processes

Dirk Schulze Schencking

Hauhinco Maschinenfabrik GmbH, Germany

 

 

Sebastien Flament

Senior Project Leader, CRM Group

Graduated as chemical engineer I started my career at CRM in 2007. I am involved in Rolls related topics since the beginning. This included the further understanding of roll degradations (work roll, backup rolls and edger rolls) and notably the impact of several chemicals in work roll cooling waters on roll degradation, the development of an on-site characterization lab dedicated for work rolls analyses (from chemical analysis, to metallography and sampling) and the development of new roll grades.

Dr Michael Auinger

Associate Professor, WMG, University of Warwick

Michael is Associate Professor at the University of Warwick, specializing in the fields of Computational Thermochemistry, Transport Phenomena and Corrosion. He obtained his doctorate in Chemical Engineering in 2009 from the Johannes Kepler University in Austria and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max-Planck-Institut fuer Eisenforschung GmbH in Germany. He obtained the “venia docendi” from TU Wien in Inorganic Materials Science in 2018 and, unrelated to that, another tenure track completion from the University of Warwick in 2020 in Materials Modelling and Computation. His works at the University of Warwick focus on computational methods to improve steel and metals manufacture whilst his Turing Fellowship (2012-2023) brought him closer to the use of AI in metals manufacturing and corrosion. He has published more than 70 articles and has held more than 30 invited talks all over the world. His works were recognised by the TP Hoar Award from the British Institute of Corrosion and the EOS Prize of the European Optical Society.

 

Michael is part of the OXI Conference organising technical Committee and will deliver its keynote on Selective Oxidation by Experiment and Simulation.

Dr Xavier Vanden Eynde

Chief Scientific Officer, CRM Group, Belgium

Xavier is the Chief Scientific Officer of the Centre de Recherches Metallurgiques (CRM Group) in Belgium since 2022 and has been within the CRM group since 2000, after graduating from a PhD at the University Catholique de Louvain in Materials Sciences in 1999. He is also the manager of the analytical and characterisation laboratory in Liege dealing with metallography, chemistry, mechanical testing and surface characterisation methods, its PhD background and expertise. He is a member of the e-WallonHY steering committee for developing Hydrogen technologies and ecosystems in Wallonia, an active member at the Belgian Hydrogen Council and technical auditor for BELAC and ISO 17025 accreditation.

Xavier will deliver his keynote on Oxide scale characterisation and related challenges