Only once before has this recognition been given to a researcher at a Danish institution, when Niels Hansen from DTU Wind Energy, at the time division head of the Risø research labs, was honoured as Fellow of ASM International in 1988.In the motivation for Marcel Somers’ appointment it is mentioned that the recognition is given "For sustained, innovative and outstanding contributions to the field of thermochemical surface engineering through fundamental and applied research, teaching, and transfer of technology to practice."
Marcel Somers says: ”This is a most honourable recognition of the research, innovation and educational activities that the excellent team of people around me has contributed with. It means a lot to me, because it underlines that the interplay of basic and applied research, innovation and teaching that we practice in materials science and engineering at DTU is internationally acclaimed to be of world class.”
Marcel Somers has specialized in the interaction between metals and gasses to improve the performance of metals by surface engineering as well as understand their degradation during high-temperature corrosion. Furthermore, he is involved in materials microstructure characterization with microscopy, diffraction and spectroscopy and selected topics in materials modelling and phase transformations. His research is widely applied in industry. He has co-authored more than 250 papers in international scientific and technological journals and conference proceedings, and is co-inventor on a series of patents. For his work he has previously been assigned the Brandsma award (1989), ASM European Lecturer award (1999/2000), Reinholdt W. Jorck award (2001), DTU's innovation award (2007) and the Alexander Foss Gold Medal (2014).
ASM's 2016 Class of Fellows
ASM International (formerly American Society of Metals) is the world’s largest materials-oriented materials society and has more than 30,000 members. In 1969, ASM established the Fellow of ASM honour to provide recognition to members for their distinguished contributions to materials science and engineering and to develop a broadly based forum of technical and professional leaders to serve as advisors to the society. The FASM honour has been appointed to leading materials researchers in the entire world and is considered one of the most important honours in materials science and engineering. This year ASM appoints 22 FASMs, of which only three are employed outside USA. The recipients will be honoured on the occasion of ASM’s annual Awards Dinner in Salt Lake City on October 25th.