Abstract: High entropy alloys (HEAs) are a new family of metallic materials that have attracted important attention in the last 16 years. This materials engineering’ field has increased enormously, and today, more than 11,000 papers and patents related to this topic have been published; additionally, different subbranches such as “refractory high entropy alloys”and “eutectic high entropy alloys” have emerged. HEAs were first developed via ingot metallurgy, but in this family of alloys, which uses five or more elements and many with dissimilar density, it is difficult to obtain a good level of solubility during melting and to avoid segregation during solidification. In this case, powder metallurgy (PM) is a forming technology that can avoid many problems present in conventional ingot metallurgy, offering a better microstructural control, the possibility of nanocrystalline materials or the capability of developing metal matrix composites without the segregation issue. The first papers related to HEAs manufactured by PM appeared in 2008. PM offers some particular advantages over ingot casting, including two particular benefits over other forming techniques: 1) it can be applied when metals with dissimilar densities must be used, which is the case when lightweight HEAs are developed and 2) it can be applied when many metals with notably high melting points are involved, the so-called refractory HEAs. In this decade, more than 400 papers have been published on high entropy alloys manufactured by PM techniques; more than 60 of these papers report an additive manufacturing approach (not including the use of powders to develop laser cladding coatings).

Biography: José Manuel Torralba, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and Senior Scientist at IMDEA Materials Institute. Prof. Torralba is Fellow in the two most important Powder Metallurgy associations in the world: FAPMI and FEPMA (first European to be Fellow at the same time in Europe and USA). He has participated in more than 80 International Advisory Committees at International Conferences, in about 35 competitive funded projects (among which five EU-projects and one NSF-USA project) and in several research evaluation panels (including the EU Research Framework Programmes) some of which in Israel and New Zealand. Throughout his career, Prof. Torralba has constantly striven for a holistic approach, being involved in a wide number of academic activities: teaching, research, innovation, university management and management of research programmes and science communication. He also regularly participates in activities related to mentoring, research integrity, new ethics in science and to the promotion of healthy conditions in research labs. He has been an active supervisor of PhD students and has created a good international network of former students in academia and industry. Prof. Torralba also collaborates regularly with two NGOs (supporting a secondary school in Kenya and providing scientific divulgation lectures in jails).