Mahdieh Safyari

1. Introduction

Dr. Mahdieh Safyari earned her PhD from the Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Japan. She has developed an international research career across Austria (AIT) and Finland (LUT – Mechanics of Materials group), working as a Scientist and postdoctoral researcher. She has been awarded highly competitive funding, including the Academy Research Fellowship from the Research Council of Finland (Suomen Akatemia) and the FWF-ESPRIT grant from the Austrian Science Fund, and actively collaborates with industry and international partners to address real-world engineering challenges and advance materials for hydrogen-related technologies.

2. Research Focus

Her research is driven by physical metallurgy of advanced and conventional alloys, with a strong emphasis on:

• Hydrogen embrittlement mechanisms in steels and other structural alloys
• Understanding how microstructure evolves during processing
• Revealing how microstructure controls material performance
• Designing metals that are stronger, more reliable, and more sustainable, as well as resistant to demanding environments such as hydrogen exposure, high and low temperatures, corrosive conditions, high-pressure service, cyclic loading and fatigue, wear-related degradation, and other extreme operating conditions

To accelerate the discovery and optimization of next-generation alloys, her research team integrates advanced experimental techniques and simulation approaches, including:

• Phase-field modeling
• Finite element modeling (FEM)
• Thermodynamic and kinetic simulations (e.g., CALPHAD)
• Hydrogen diffusion and trapping simulations
• Density Functional Theory (DFT) for atomistic-scale insights
•  Digital and AI-driven tools

3. Key Research Areas

• Materials for hydrogen environments and hydrogen embrittlement
• Sustainable and recycled metals with reduced CO₂ emissions and energy consumption
• Welding metallurgy, focusing on microstructural integrity of joints and performance under cyclic and monotonic loading
• Additive manufacturing (AM) and defect–property relationships
• Conventional and advanced manufacturing processes, including rolling, heat treatment and thermomechanical processing, casting and solidification control, and additive manufacturing techniques (e.g., laser powder bed fusion and directed energy deposition, WAAM)
• Digital workflows and AI-driven materials optimization
• Corrosion and degradation in aggressive environments, including battery corrosion and electrochemical systems
• Hydrogen production and carrier systems, including materials for hydrogen production technologies and related infrastructure
• Ammonia-related energy systems, including materials challenges in ammonia production, storage, transport, and utilization
• Applications for fossil-free steel and low-carbon industrial systems, enabling sustainable steel production and green transition technologies.

4. Investigated material systems

Her research covers a wide range of metallic material systems:

• Steels: low-carbon steels, high-strength steels, and advanced high-strength steels (AHSS), as well as stainless steels including austenitic, ferritic, martensitic, duplex, and precipitation-hardened grades. It also includes multiphase steels such as dual-phase (DP), complex-phase (CP), TRIP, and bainitic steels, along with medium- and high-manganese steels and other advanced martensitic and tool steels.
• Light alloys: aluminum and its alloys, magnesium alloys, and titanium alloys.
• Advanced alloy systems: nickel-based alloys and high-entropy alloys.
• Metal-based composites: including carbon fiber–reinforced aluminum alloys and steels.

5. Scientific Approach

A central theme of her work is the fundamental linkage between processing, microstructure, and performance, which she uses as a guiding framework for materials design. This approach enables the development of smarter, physics-based material design strategies and supports the faster translation of laboratory-scale discoveries into industrial applications, bridging the gap between fundamental research and real-world engineering solutions.