International Conference on Surface Science, Engineering & Technology

Professor Christopher C Berndt

Distinguished Professor of Surface Science & Interface Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology

Professor Berndt's professional responsibilities gravitate around the Thermal Spray Society of the American Society of Materials (ASM) of which he has been a member since 1991.  He was appointed as the Vice President of this society in 2000 and President in 2002 through to 2004.  He was the Proceedings Editor for the Thermal Spray Conferences from 1992-2003.  He was the Founding Editor, and now Editor Emeritus, for the Journal of Thermal Spray Technology (first issued in 1992).  He was appointed trustee (the Board of Directors) of ASM for 2005-2008.  Professor Berndt became President of ASM in October 2011.  He was also the President of the Australian Ceramic Society from mid-2008 through to mid-2010.

Berndt is a Member of 8 professional societies in the materials, mechanical, manufacturing and biomedical fields.  He is a Fellow in 6 of these societies.  He is also a Chartered Engineer (UK), a Professional Engineer (Australia), and a Member of the college of Bioengineers (Australia).  Berndt has held positions as a Senior Staff Member at NASA (LeRC/GRC) in Cleveland, a Faculty Fellow of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Guest Scientist of Brookhaven National Laboratory.  He holds Distiguished Professor appointments at the Indian Institute of Technology's of Madras and Hyderabad.

Professor Berndt has more than 635 publications.  He is Editor/Co-editor of 10 conference proceeedings on thermal spray and has an "h-index" of 69 and more than 17,590 citations to his work.  He moved to Swinburne University of Technology (Melbourne, Victoria) in early 2008 as the founding  Professor of Surface Science and Interface Engineering.  Berndt was the Director of the Industrial Research Institute Swinburne from March 2008 through to August 2011.  He is the current Director of SEAM (Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials), which is sponsored by the Australian Research Council.

Berndt was inducted into the Thermal Spray Hall of Fame in 2007.  He was awarded the Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation in 2021, Honorary Membership of ASM International in 2022 and the 2023 Samuel Geijsbeek PACRIM International Award.   Chris acknowledges that such awards reflect better on the many students and professionals which whom he has interacted over 45 years.