Marc Bernacki recipient 2024 of the SF2M Albert Portevin Medal

We are very proud and thrilled by this new distinction, which rewards the work of a researcher who is totally committed to his missions and passionate about his scientific research field.

The Albert Portevin* Medal is awarded by the SF2M** French Association every two years in recognition of an outstanding contribution. This year, it is being awarded to Marc Bernacki! This award recognises Marc Bernacki’s scientific dynamism and provides a great opportunity to present a brief overview of his research activities to date.

MARC BERNACKI, professor in MINES Paris, works at CEMEF on high performance computing for metallic materials. He is the head of the Metallurgy, Microstructure, Rheology (MSR) team and the holder of the current ANR Industrial Chair “RealIMotion”.

His research work aims to develop advanced numerical methods describing materials at mesoscopic scale and mutliscale computation for predicting the microstructures evolution during transformation of metallic materials.

The originality of the numerical simulations lies in the natural complexity of metallic materials on a polycrystalline scale, as well as in the abundant physics of the numerous metallurgical mechanisms at work during forming processes. The computational tools he and his team have developed contribute (through retroengineering and ongoing dialogue with experimental tests) to the understanding of certain properties inherent to the defects present in the material and still widely discussed in the community (grain boundary energy, twins, mobility, etc).

His research contributes to both academic scientific understanding and practical applications for optimizing industrial manufacturing processes. The two ANR industrial chairs that he has managed (past and current) and the Digimu consortium that he leads illustrate Marc’s dynamism in this dialogue between upstream developments and partnership research.

The lineage to Albert Portevin (1880-1962) is clear: understanding and predicting microstructural changes in metallic materials is more than ever a key issue for the environmental, societal, economic and sovereignty impact of many strategic sectors (aerospace, nuclear, renewable energies, defence, transportation, etc).

The generic nature of the digital tools developed by Marc and his team allows them to be applied to other fields of research such as in powder metallurgy, or for geological or even extraterrestrial materials.

Last but not least, let us conclude this brief review of 20-year research on the importance of knowledge transmission. Marc has always been keen to disseminate his approach to metallurgy to numerous graduate students, PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and colleagues as well as within major industrial groups with renowned materials experts..

Thanks to Marc Bernacki for promoting French metallurgical research.

>> Find out more about Albert Portevin

>> Find out more about the SF2M association

>> Find out more about the MSR research team & activities