About Sam Lawrence
Samuel Lawrence was a former special topics and failure analysis metallographer for Bethlehem/ISG Steel, Homer Research Laboratories for 26 years. While at Homer, Samuel conceived original etchant formulations and developed techniques to investigate various phase formations in metallic coated steels, transition or twin induced plasticity steels and characterization research for high performance nanoparticle polymer coatings for aerospace and mil spec applications.. He performed dilatometry analysis to develop CCT diagrams of new steel chemistries and characterize ultra fine grain ferrite steel morphologies. He provided R&D and failure analysis support for a number of welds on proprietary chemical compositions for Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Samuel also developed and implemented an in situ non-destructive field metallography program leading to the application of improved methods of quantitative field analysis within the steel industry.
Samuel has taught Metallographic Techniques courses at the ASM Engineering Institute since 1997. He has served as judge for the IMS society poster competition program at the IMS/ASM Materials Week since 1998 and has been an invited speaker at several IMS conferences.
His images are published in Bruce Bramfitt and Arlan Benscoter’s Metallographic Guide, in technical articles and cover photographs for ASM’s Advanced Materials and Process, and in the “Nikon Small World” photography, Struers and Buehler material science calendars.
Samuel is a contributing author to Volume 9, 9th edition of the ASM Handbook: Metallography and Microstructures. Articles include “Metallography and Microstructures of Ferrous Alloys” and “Field Metallography: New Techniques”.
He has co-authored “A Perspective on the Quality of Steel from the RMS Titanic” in Iron and Steel Maker 2001 and “Spectrographic Analysis of Corrosion Products on the Turret of the USS Monitor” for the Nace Corrosion Conference 2007.
Samuel is currently a manager at Lehigh University, Department of Material Science and Engineering where he supervises the metallographic and light optical microscopy laboratories which focus on diverse material science and engineering education using existing materials for established applications or developing new materials and innovative processing methods. He provides technical expertise support for faculty research, industry and failure analysis projects which includes teaching hands on laboratory classes, instructional metallographic techniques and microscopy training to undergraduate, graduate and work study students.