Vol. 61 No. 9 • JOM 9www.tms.org/jom.html TMS Member Profi les Each month, JOM features a TMS member and his or her activities outside of the realm of materials science and engineering. To suggest a candidate for this feature, contact Francine Garrone, JOM news editor, at fgarrone@tms .org. By Francine Garrone When Diana Lados began playing tennis at the young age of 4, she was learning to perfect her game with a wooden racket. By the time she was a championship player at 14, Lados had moved on to an aluminum racket. Already, the science and aesthetics of aluminum had made their mark on her game and, ultimately, on her life. Looking back on her championship year, Lados, an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering Depart- ment and director of the Integrated Materials Design Center at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Mas- sachusetts, associates her understand- ing of materials in tennis, and their evolution, with materials used in other applications, particularly aerospace materials. Shortly after starting her doctoral research at WPI and many years after winning her tennis trophy, Lados developed a passion for cast- ing the same material that her racket was made from—aluminum—and creating beautiful artwork. Her hobby Meet a Member: Diana Lados: Casting Creations in Aluminum & Photography soon became an artistic inspiration that benefi ted from her studying materials science and having an understanding of the metal. “While preparing my re- search samples, I would see interest- ing shapes that I thought I could bring to life in a different way,” Lados said. “I never made parts from scratch but rather re-shaped or accentuated the ex- isting pieces of cast aluminum alloys from our foundry.” By “post-processing” pieces of cast aluminum that she fi nds in WPI’s foundry, Lados creates such artwork as “The Egg” (Figure 1). Post-processing includes bending, hammering, coarse or mirror polishing, and selective area etching. At times, Lados paints the pieces with vibrant colors or glues several pieces together to create the fi - nal shape to enhance specifi c features of the piece. “Most pieces represent objects or beings often with stylized features to create different effects and emphasize certain characteristics,” she said. “There are also a few abstract pieces that challenge the viewer’s imagination.” To date, Lados has created more than two dozen pieces of cast alumi- num artwork. Each of her works ranges in size from a few inches to several feet tall. She said she gives her artwork to friends to be placed in their homes and gardens. On occasion, Lados has used her cre- ativity to shed light on certain features of her cast aluminum artwork using another one of her hobbies—photog- raphy. “Both cast aluminum creations and photography require imagination and a good sense of proportion and three-dimensional space visualiza- tion,” she said. “They are great ways to use technical knowledge and tools for artistic manifestations.” Lados’ photography not only cap- tures her cast aluminum artwork but also landmarks, nature, churches, as well as many objects and “catch the moment” shots. “I started with an old 35 millimeter Leica camera over 20 years ago, and in recent years, I began to explore more with digital photog- raphy,” Lados said. “I was always in- clined to observe things, place them in a context, and pay attention to details.” Currently, Lados is preparing an exhibit with 72 of her photographs to be displayed in the Gordon Library at WPI. Work from her “Nature, Color, and Life in South America” and “Ar- chitecture Around the World” collec- tions will be featured. “In a way, both of these interests have enabled me to look at the world around us with a different perspective, add new dimen- sions to it, and appreciate the beauty, form and context,” Lados said. Figure 1: Al-7%Si-Mg (A356) alloy egg. The question is: Which came fi rst? The cast Al egg or the cast Al hen? Figure 2: Machu Picchu, Urubam- ba Valley, Peru—“The Lost City of the Incas.” << /ASCII85EncodePages false /AllowTransparency false /AutoPositionEPSFiles true /AutoRotatePages /None /Binding /Left /CalGrayProfile (Gray Gamma 2.2) /CalRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CalCMYKProfile (ISO Coated v2 300% \050ECI\051) /sRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CannotEmbedFontPolicy /Error /CompatibilityLevel 1.3 /CompressObjects /Off /CompressPages true /ConvertImagesToIndexed true /PassThroughJPEGImages true /CreateJobTicket false /DefaultRenderingIntent /Perceptual /DetectBlends true /DetectCurves 0.1000 /ColorConversionStrategy /sRGB /DoThumbnails true /EmbedAllFonts true /EmbedOpenType false /ParseICCProfilesInComments true /EmbedJobOptions true /DSCReportingLevel 0 /EmitDSCWarnings false /EndPage -1 /ImageMemory 1048576 /LockDistillerParams true /MaxSubsetPct 100 /Optimize true /OPM 1 /ParseDSCComments true /ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo true /PreserveCopyPage true /PreserveDICMYKValues true /PreserveEPSInfo true /PreserveFlatness true /PreserveHalftoneInfo false /PreserveOPIComments false /PreserveOverprintSettings true /StartPage 1 /SubsetFonts false /TransferFunctionInfo /Apply /UCRandBGInfo /Preserve /UsePrologue false /ColorSettingsFile () /AlwaysEmbed [ true ] /NeverEmbed [ true ] /AntiAliasColorImages false /CropColorImages true /ColorImageMinResolution 150 /ColorImageMinResolutionPolicy /Warning /DownsampleColorImages true /ColorImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /ColorImageResolution 150 /ColorImageDepth -1 /ColorImageMinDownsampleDepth 1 /ColorImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeColorImages true /ColorImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterColorImages true /ColorImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /ColorACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.76 /HSamples [2 1 1 2] /VSamples [2 1 1 2] >> /ColorImageDict << /QFactor 0.76 /HSamples [2 1 1 2] /VSamples [2 1 1 2] >> /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 15 >> /JPEG2000ColorImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 15 >> /AntiAliasGrayImages false /CropGrayImages true /GrayImageMinResolution 150 /GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /Warning /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 150 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.76 /HSamples [2 1 1 2] /VSamples [2 1 1 2] >> /GrayImageDict << /QFactor 0.76 /HSamples [2 1 1 2] /VSamples [2 1 1 2] >> /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 15 >> /JPEG2000GrayImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 15 >> /AntiAliasMonoImages false /CropMonoImages true /MonoImageMinResolution 600 /MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /Warning /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 600 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict << /K -1 >> /AllowPSXObjects false /CheckCompliance [ /None ] /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false /PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile (None) /PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier () /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName () /PDFXTrapped /False /CreateJDFFile false /Description << /CHS /CHT /DAN /DEU /ESP /FRA /ITA (Utilizzare queste impostazioni per creare documenti Adobe PDF adatti per visualizzare e stampare documenti aziendali in modo affidabile. 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