AIST’s annual board of directors Awards and Recognition Program serves to highlight those who have improved and advanced the steelmaking process, as well as challenging their colleagues to continue, and even exceed, the technological and developmental gains spotlighted by these achievements.
The winners are chosen by industry peers, who weigh the impact of the contributions to the global iron and steel industry.
This year’s winners are:
AIST Steelmaker of the Year Award – Leon Topalian, chair and chief executive officer, Nucor Corp.
Hunt-Kelly Outstanding Paper Award (AIME) •
First Place
- Pello Uranga, CEIT-Basque Research and Technology Alliance, University of Navarra-Tecnun
- Unai Mayo, CEIT-Basque Research and Technology Alliance, University of Navarra-Tecnun
- Matthew J. Merwin, U. S. Steel Research and Technology Center
These authors were selected to receive this year’s honor for their paper titled “Microstructure Response to Intermediate Reheating in Hot Strip Processing.”
Second Place
- Rishabh Shah, Falkonry Inc
- Suhas Mehta, Falkonry Inc.
These authors were selected to receive this award for their paper titled “Prioritized Anomaly Management in Steel Production Using Self-Supervised AI”
Third Place
- Amrita Bag, Interpro Pipe and Steel
- Bikram Konar, Boston Metal
- Keyan Miao, Stelco Inc. – A Cleveland-Cliffs Company
- Michael J. Gaudet, Interpro Pipe and Steel
These authors were selected for their paper titled “Development of an Improved Inclusion Assessment Approach for Steels.”
AIST William T. Hogan, S.J. Lecture Award – Leon Topalian, chair and chief executive officer, Nucor Corp.
Published April 2026