Event Organisers

Mr Adam Wintle

Adam is Weartech’s Technical director and has been involved in the field of specialized welding and thermal spraying for over thirty years. He has been in this position for twenty years after starting in the company when he was 21.

He has attended over twenty international thermal spray conferences where most of his knowledge was gained. Adam has also been the acting chairman of the Thermal Spray Association of Southern Africa since 2014.

Prof. Claudia Polese

Claudia Polese is an Associate Professor in Aerospace Manufacturing and Design at the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and the Advisory Aerospace Research Director of the National Aerospace Centre.

A National Research Foundation-rated researcher from 2011 and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Prof. Polese is also deeply involved in the activities of the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials and the ARUA Centre of Excellence in Materials, Energy and Nanotechnology, and she is currently Head of the Aeronautical Engineering stream in the School.

Dr Michael Lucas

Michael Lucas is a postdoctoral fellow within the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Michael’s doctoral research into antimicrobial surface coatings via cold spray and 3D printing technologies, which won the Hubert Tuor Innovation Award at the 5th International Conference on Prevention & Infection Control, is now being piloted in a South African private hospital. Michael is also managing the Cold Spray Lab at Wits University, training undergraduate and postgraduate students on the equipment, and assisting with industry collaborative research projects. The versatility of Cold Spray Technology as both a surface coating process and additive manufacturing technique is something Michael wishes to promote. He is currently running a series of specialisation labs for 3rd year engineering students and hopes to encourage inter-faculty research collaborations. Michael is also a keen birder.

Aliah Abrahams

Aliah Abrahams is currently undertaking her MSc at the University of the Witwatersrand in Cold Gas Spray and is supervised by Professor Claudia Polese and Dr Michael Atkins.

She is the primary investigator of the gas-to-particle interactions within the supersonic spray jet used to accelerate the particles during the Cold Spray process.

The work includes CFD simulations of the supersonic gas jet and experimental investigations that use advanced particle tracking technology.