Dr. Min Kuo and Dr. John Chiang to Receive 2004 SAE/AISI Sydney H. Melbourne Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Automotive Sheet Steel

Warrendale, PA February 7, 2005 - Dr. Min Kuo of Ispat Inland, Inc. and Dr. John Chiang of Ford Motor Company have been selected to receive the 2004 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)/American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) Sydney H. Melbourne Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Automotive Sheet Steel. Both men will be presented with the award on Tuesday, April 12 during the Honors Convocation at the 2005 SAE World Congress in Detroit, Michigan.

This award, established in 1997, recognizes an author who effectively demonstrates ways to further the use of sheet steel in automotive applications. It honors the memory and accomplishments of the late Mr. Sydney H. Melbourne of Dofasco, Inc. and encourages others to strive for the level of excellence he attained within his organization, the steel industry and the automotive marketplace. Along with a commemorative plaque, the recipients also equally share a $3500 honorarium funded by AISI.

This year's award-winning paper is entitled, "Weldability Study of Resistance Spot Welds and Minimum Weld Button Size Methodology Development for DP Steel," (SAE Paper No. 2004-01-0169).

Dr. Kuo is currently the automotive platform manager for product application in the R&D Department of Ispat Inland. He works in the early vendor involvement program with Ford truck platforms providing technical support in the areas of AHSS applications R&D, engineering, manufacturing, and material consultation. His background includes work as a key member of Total Quality Assurance in Chuan Yuan Steel Structural Construction Company in Taiwan; manager of electronic packaging applications at the Gintic Institute of Manufacturing Technology, National Research Institute of Singapore; and chief engineer of RoMan Engineering Service Inc. Dr. Kuo has authored more than 30 technical papers. He holds a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Feng Chia University in Taiwan, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the Department of Welding Engineering at The Ohio State University in the United States.

Dr. Chiang works for Ford on super-duty truck frame design and leads several frame development activities, across truck frame programs, such as production welding issue support, welded joint/structure design improvement and the study of advanced high strength steels in welding applications. He has 13 years of experience in the automotive industry covering production welding design and trouble shooting, advanced high strength steel welding, generic architecture design rule of thumb, structure NVH, structural durability, and automation of truck frame X-ray inspection. He holds two master's degrees in welding and engineering mechanics from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Case Western Reserve University.