Dr Thomas Dorin has received a prestigious Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council.

The award will provide Thomas with $407,000 over the next three years to pursue research on new classes of aluminium-magnesium-silicon alloys via scandium additions.

With the transport sector accounting for 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, there is much interest in lightweighting vehicles as a strategy to reduce these emissions. The use of aluminium to reduce vehicle weight offers potential to also significantly reduce emissions. Scandium can improve the performance of aluminium. This project will attempt to explain the fundamental interactions between scandium and other alloying elements in 6xxx-series aluminium alloys.