Senior Lecturer

Kevin Laws

Contact Details

Building/Room number: 

E10 / 301

Telephone: 

+61 (0)2 9385 5234

Facsimile: 

+61 (0)2 9385 5956

Email: 

k.laws@unsw.edu.au

Professional Experience: 

  • ARC DECRA Fellow & Senior Research Fellow: School of Materials Science & Engineering, UNSW, Sydney, Australia (2012-2015)
  • Project Manager: Australian Research Council; Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals (2009-2013)
  • Research Fellow: School of Materials Science & Engineering, UNSW, Sydney, Australia (2007-2011)
  • Invited Research Fellow:  Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Laboratory of Metal Physics and Technology, Zurich, Switzerland (May-Dec 2014)
  • Invited Research Fellow & Adjunct Member: United States Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, USA (Jan-April 2011)
  • Visiting Research Fellow: Grenoble Institute of Technology (INPG) and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France (July-Aug 2011)
  • Visiting Research Fellow: Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA (Jan-April 2011)
  • Invited Research Fellow: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Laboratory of Metal Physics and Technology, Zurich, Switzerland (Jan-July 2010)
  • Visiting Researcher: The University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom (July-Aug 2009)

Education: 

  • Doctor of Philosophy (2008) UNSW, Australia - Thesis: “The Production and Properties of Light Weight Bulk Metallic Glasses” 
  • Bachelor of Engineering (Materials Engineering) (Hons.) (2003) UNSW Australia - Thesis: “Strip Casting of Magnesium Alloys”

Research Contributions: 

Areas of expertise and current research interests include:
  • The design, development, production and characterisation of new amorphous alloys and bulk metallic glass-forming alloy systems
  • Atomic and topological structure characteristics of amorphous metals including molecular-dynamic simulations of amorphous structures
  • rheology, superplastic and visco-elastic properties of supercooled metallic liquids; 
  • Design of high entropy alloys and single-phase solid solutions 
  • Alloying, casting and casting technologies(inverted) of metals including reactive metals, rapid solidification and 3D printing/additive manufacturing
  • Applications of electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry (metals) and atom probe tomography.  

Teaching Contributions: 

  • MATS1214: Welding & Joining Processes (2010-2012) 
  • MATS3001: Micromechanisms of Deformation in Materials (2012-2013) 
  • MATS6106: Strengthening Mechanisms (2016).

Honours, Awards and Memberships: 

  • Adjunct Member (2011-)  United States Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, USA
  • WINNER - Best New Science (2013) ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals, “Lattice and enthalpy balanced high entropy alloys” Including $10,000 project seed funding and $3,000 prize money.
  • UNSW Goldstar (2011): “A fundamental approach to generating new classes of light-weight bulk metallic glasses based on liquid-metal structures”  $40,000 research funding
  • WINNER - Best Poster (2015) Aarthi Sridhar, Cody Crosby, Mo Zhao, Shifrah Aron-Dine, and Lori Bassman, Kevin Laws, Patrick Conway, and Leah Koloadin “Microstructure, Phase Evolution and Properties of High Entropy Brasses and Bronzes” The 144th Annual Meeting and Exhibition of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), Orlando, Florida, USA 
  • WINNER - Best Poster (2011) Logan Ward, Anupriya Agrawal, Kevin Laws, Katharine Flores, Wolfgang Windl; “Virtual Design and Optimization of Metallic Glasses.” The 140th Annual Meeting and Exhibition of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), San Diego, California, USA 

Research Funding: 

Since 2010, over $4.4M has been granted to support Laws’ research, including $2.9M from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and >$1M from international industry sponsors and government agencies including Baosteel, The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Volkswagen and the United States Air Force. Some recent significant funding grants include:
  • ARC Discovery – “Ultra-lightweight alloys with unique multi-dimensional property profiles” (2015-2017)
  • ARC DECRA - “A fundamental approach to generating new classes of light-weight amorphous alloys based on liquid-metal structures” (2012-2015)
  • ARC Linkage - “Direct strip casting of steels” with Baosteel (2012-2015)
  • Volkswagen: “Twin-roll strip-casting of Mg-Zn-Ca alloys for automotive applications” (2013-)
  • United States Air Force: “A fundamental approach to developing aluminium-based bulk amorphous alloys based on stable liquid-metal structures and electronic equilibrium” (2015)

Selected Publications: 

  1. KJ Laws, DB Miracle, M Ferry; “A Predictive Structural Model for Bulk Metallic Glasses”, Nature Communications 6, (2015) Article number: 8123 
  2. KJ Laws, D Granata, J F Löffler, “Alloy design strategies for sustained ductility in Mg-based amorphous alloys – Tackling structural relaxation” Acta Materialia  (Accepted 31st August 2015)
  3. JD Cao, NT Kirkland, KJ Laws, N Birbilis, M Ferry; “Ca-Mg-Zn Bulk Metallic Glasses as Bioresorbable Metals” 
    Acta Biomaterialia Vol. 8 (2012) pp. 2375-2383
  4. P Thurnheer, R Maaß, KJ Laws, S Pogatscher, JF Löffler; “Dynamic properties of major-shear bands: A study of the Zr-Cu-Al metallic-glass alloy system” Acta Materialia Vol. 96, (2015) pp. 428-436
  5. KJ Laws,  JD Cao,  C Reddy,  KF Shamlaye, B Gun, M. Ferry; “Ultra-Magnesium-rich, low-density Mg-Ni-Ca bulk metallic glasses” Scripta Materialia Vol. 88 (2014) pp. 37-40
  6. KF Shamlaye, KJ Laws, M Ferry; “Supercooled liquid fusion of carbon fibre-bulk metallic glass composites with superplastic forming properties” Scripta Materialia (Accepted 4th August, 2015)
  7. KJ Laws, C Crosby, A Sridhar, PLJ Conway, LS Koloadin, M Zhao, S Aron-Dine, LC Bassman; “High Entropy Brasses and Bronzes - Microstructure, Phase Evolution and Properties” , Journal of Alloys and Compounds Vol. 650, (2012) pp. 949-961
  8. KJ Laws, KF Shamlaye, JD Cao, JP Scicluna, M Ferry; “Locating new Mg-based bulk metallic glasses free of rare earth elements” Journal of Alloys and Compounds. Vol. 542, (2012) pp.105-110
  9. KJ Laws, DW Saxey, WR McKenzie, RKW Marceau, B Gun, SP Ringer, M Ferry; “Analysis of dynamic segregation and crystallisation in Mg65Cu25Y10 bulk metallic glass using atom probe tomography” Materials Science & Engineering A. Vol. 556, (2012) pp. 558-566
  10. R Mahjoub, KJ Laws, JP Scicluna, JE Daniels, M Ferry; “A First Principles Molecular Dynamics Study of the relationship between Atomic Structure and Elastic Properties of Mg-Zn-Ca Amorphous Alloys” Computational Materials Science Vol. 96 (2015) pp. 246-255