Dr. Johannes Österreicher, Scientist at LKR Leichtmetallkompetenzzentrum Ranshofen, wins first prize in the PhD competition 2019 of the International Society for Stereology and Image Analysis (ISSIA).
This international prize is awarded every two years and honors the best dissertation in the field of stereology and image analysis. Stereology is the spatial interpretation of sections.
In his doctoral thesis "Characterization of Al-Mg-Si Alloys for Automotive Safety Parts", Dr. Österreicher studied quantitative scanning electron microscopy of nanoscale particles distributed in solid media. Such particle-matrix systems are relevant in materials science, biology, and many other scientific disciplines. Dr. Österreicher introduced a method to reconstruct the three-dimensional size distribution of such particles from backscattered electron images. In addition, he developed a new preparation method for aluminium alloys, which greatly improves the contrast of Mg-Si precipitates and thus significantly increases the achievable resolution.
Photo by Ales Kladnik
The work was carried out from 2014 to 2018 as part of the FFG project AMOREE (No. 843537) at AIT and the University of Salzburg in close cooperation with the industrial partner Hammerer Aluminium Industries (HAI).
Dr. Österreicher presented his work at the invitation of the ISSIA on 29 May 2019 at the 15th International Congress for Stereology and Image Analysis in Aarhus, Denmark, and accepted the award.
The entire research team is delighted and proud of this success!
Paper:
Österreicher, J. A., Grabner, F., Schiffl, A., Schwarz, S., & Bourret, G. R. (2018). Information depth in backscattered electron microscopy of nanoparticles within a solid matrix. Materials Characterization, 138, 145-153. doi.org/10.1016/j.matchar.2018.01.049