A Vision Come True

Author:  Jack Champaigne, Editor
Source:  The Shot Peener magazine, Vol 33, Issue 4, Fall 2019
Doc ID:  2019037
Year of Publication:  2019
Abstract:  
A Vision Come True The Surface Engineering and Advanced Materials Processing Conference held at Purdue University this spring had a special significance to me. I have wanted to establish a shot peening center (now called surface enhancement) at a US university since I hosted the International Conference on Shot Peening in San Francisco in 1996. Technically, that conference was very successful. During analysis after the conference, however, I was disappointed to recognize that the academic audience had only one person from the USA. It was Professor Ralph Stevens from the University of Iowa, a former student of Henry Fuchs at Stanford. (Mr. Fuchs was the founder of Metal Improvement Company.) I knew Stevens from my participation in the SAE committees. The reason he attended was because I needed a keynote lecturer. The recognition that so many foreign universities were active in shot peening instilled in me a desire to make a change.