Missouri S&T professor wins esteemed Sendzimir Award
Dr. Ronald J. O’Malley, Missouri S&T’s F. Kenneth Iverson Endowed Chair of Steelmaking Technologies, has been selected to receive the 2025 Tadeusz Sendzimir Memorial Medal for Innovation in Steel Manufacturing Technology from the Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST).
“Over the 36 years I have been a member of AIST, I have been fortunate to receive some wonderful recognitions from the association, but I am especially proud of this honor,” says O’Malley, who also serves as director of S&T’s Kent D. Peaslee Steel Manufacturing Research Center. “Dr. Tadeusz Sendzimir was an extraordinary innovator in the steelmaking industry, so being selected for a medal with his name is a special honor.”
O’Malley will receive the award during the 2025 AIST President’s Award Breakfast on Tuesday, May 6 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Since 1990, AIST has awarded the medal to perpetuate the memory of Sendzimir’s contributions in developing process equipment used in the steel industry. The association’s website notes it goes to “the individual or individuals who have advanced steelmaking through the invention, development or application of new manufacturing processes or equipment.”
O’Malley was selected for the award in recognition of his work using optical fiber sensors to monitor temperature and strain in steelmaking — enabling real-time data collection across a range of extreme-environment applications in the steelmaking industry.
A member of the Missouri S&T faculty since 2014, O’Malley has been awarded millions of dollars in federal grants to support his research with industry partners to improve the operating efficiency of steelmaking technologies. Before joining the S&T faculty, he was the chief metallurgist at Nucor Steel Decator in Trinity, Alabama.
O’Malley served as the 2019-20 president of AIST and is a lifetime member of the organization. He is currently president-elect of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) Board of Trustees, which is the parent organization of AIST and three other member societies representing almost 200,000 professional and students around the globe.
In 2021, he was awarded AIME Honorary Membership — one of the organization’s top honors.
O’Malley earned a Ph.D. in metallurgy from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in materials engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia.
For more information about Missouri S&T’s metallurgical engineering programs, visit mse.mst.edu.
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