Rate My Professor Michael Ferry

Professor Michael Ferry serves as Head of School in the School of Materials Science and Engineering within the Faculty of Science at the University of New South Wales. He obtained his BEng (Hons I) from the University of Wollongong in 1989 and PhD from UNSW in 1994. His professional career encompasses diverse roles, beginning as a Metallurgical Engineer at Alcan Australia Limited (1989-1994), followed by an EPSRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Manchester (1994-1996), and Lecturer in the Department of Materials Engineering at the University of Wollongong (1996-1999). Since joining UNSW in 2000, he progressed from Senior Lecturer (2000-2003) and Associate Professor (2004-2007) to full Professor (2008-present), assuming the Head of School position in 2019. Ferry has held prestigious visiting appointments, including Baosteel Talent Development Institute Teaching Professor in China (2013-2016), Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore (2012-2013) and Ecole des Mines de Saint Etienne (2008-2011), Visiting Senior Fellow at the University of Manchester (2004), and Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge (2002). He is a Chartered Materials Professional (2020), Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia (2007), Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (UK) (2006), Chartered Engineer (UK) (1996), and Chartered Professional Engineer (Australia) (1996).

Ferry's research expertise lies in mechanisms of microstructure and texture evolution during solidification, phase transformations, deformation, and annealing, with emphasis on agile manufacturing processes. Key interests include design of ultralight alloys, compositionally complex alloys, bulk metallic glasses and composites, recovery and recrystallization in alloys, and engineered microstructures via additive manufacturing. He authored the book Direct Strip Casting of Metals and Alloys (CRC Press & Woodhead, 2006) and contributed chapters such as Alloys: Iron in Encyclopedia of Condensed Matter Physics (2024) and Metallic glasses in Structural Biomaterials (2021). Notable journal articles encompass Ultrahigh specific strength in a magnesium alloy strengthened by spinodal decomposition (Science Advances, 2021), Precipitation strengthening in an ultralight magnesium alloy (Nature Communications, 2019), A high-specific-strength and corrosion-resistant magnesium alloy (Nature Materials, 2015), and A predictive structural model for bulk metallic glasses (Nature Communications, 2015). Ferry has supervised numerous HDR students, led centres like the ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals (Deputy Director, 2005-2014), and secured ARC Discovery and Linkage grants. Awards include the Outstanding Collaborative Research Award from Baosteel Research Institute (2017) and CNRS Fellowship (2009-2010). He contributes to international committees for conferences on recrystallization and grain growth, and editorial boards.