The President of IIW, Douglas Luciani from Canada, was able to welcome numerous representatives of the IIW member organisations from 55 countries to the General Assembly in Bratislava/Slovakia. Important subjects were discussed in the assembly and decision proposals were introduced and voted on.
Dr. Boecking considers it to be an honour to be appointed to the Board of Directors. He is looking forward to the forthcoming tasks in IIW. "The next months will certainly become intensive and exciting," said the DVS General Manager. Because the headquarters of IIW will be relocated from Paris/France to Genoa/Italy on January 1, 2020. Dr. Luca Costa from the Italian Welding Society is becoming the new CEO of IIW and resigned from his office as the Treasurer of IIW for this purpose. The CEO of IIW until now, Dr. Cecile Mayer from the French Welding Institute, was thanked for her many years of commendable activity.
Three marks of distinction for Germany
The six-day international event was significant for Germany from another viewpoint too. Because, during the presentation of the IIW awards at the Annual Assembly, no fewer than two German scientists were able to be pleased about marks of distinction. Thus, Dipl.-Ing. Alexander Nitsche, scientific employee at the Chair of Welding Engineering at the Chemnitz University of Technology, received the Henry Granjon Prize in Category B for his paper on the subject of "Solidification phenomena in creep-resistant 9Cr weld metal and their implications on mechanical properties". Dr.-Ing. Jonas Hensel, Institute of Joining and Welding Technology at the Braunschweig University of Technology, was also presented with the Henry Granjon Prize, but in Category C, for his investigations into the subject of "Mean stress correction in fatigue design under consideration of welding residual stress".
Within the framework of the IIW honours, the organisers, the Slovakian Welding Research Institute and the Slovakian Welding Society, distinguished a few meritorious people with the "Memorial Medal of Jozef Čabelca" for their outstanding contributions to the development of welding technology. These also included the longstanding Chairman of the DVS state branch in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Dr.-Ing. Hans Georg Groß, who has represented DVS in the Eastern European countries for many years and has rendered outstanding services to the Slovakian society due to his active support.