Alan W. Cramb, is the Clark and Crossan Professor of Engineering and Dean of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was until June 2005, the POSCO Professor of Iron and Steelmaking and the Head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He was also Co-Director of the Center For Iron and Steelmaking Research. He is an Associate Editor of Metallurgical Transactions and is currently President elect of AIME.. Alan is interested in the production, refining and casting of metals and has a particular interest in steel and titanium alloys. Alan taught undergraduate and graduate courses at CMU and has presented industrial short courses in the area of clean steel production and solidification.