Andrej Atrens

Prof Andrej Atrens is Professor of Materials Engineering at The University of Queensland (UQ). Andrej earned a B.Sc.(Hons) and a Ph.D. both from the University of Adelaide, a D.Eng. (a higher doctorate) in 1997 from UQ, and became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2018. He has experience in Universities and Research Institutes in Switzerland, Thailand, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, China, USA, Fiji and Australia.

Andrej has a passion for teaching and facilitating student learning. He works hard to ensure students get the most up to date curriculum, and that graduates have the appropriate professional skills, as facilitated by his book "Human Forces in Engineering". He believes that a course or program should inspire students to learn and to become experts in that area of knowledge; provide the necessary framework for learning; and make learning easy and pleasurable. Students start out life wanting to learn, with a huge appetite for learning, and receive pleasure from learning. An academic should channel that pleasure of learning. Students learn best at a deep level when inspired and self-motivated.

Andrej has an international reputation, with active research on (i) magnesium corrosion (for biodegradable medical implants and for autos to decrease green house gas emissions) and (ii) hydrogen influence in advanced high-strength steels (to decrease CO2 emissions by light-weighting cars). He is regularly invited for plenary lectures at international conferences and as a visiting professor at leading international laboratories. Atrens has a H-index of 51, many citations (>11,300 citations), and an excellent publication record in top international journals with more than 250 refereed journal publications.