First joint PhD degree Materials Science TU Delft and Ghent University

Since the cooperation, both young researchers and professors very regularly cover the 180 km between the two cities for research and education in materials science. With a common focus on metals, the expertise of the two departments is suitably complementary, with a focus in Delft on thermodynamics and modelling and in Ghent on electron microscopy. Several research projects are performed with dual supervision, and therefore more joint PhD degrees of Delft and Ghent are anticipated in the coming years.

Due to the very heavy loading and local temperature increase significant changes in the microstructure of steel in railways take place, which eventually lead to damage. The research project of Jun Wu was sponsored by STW and ProRail, was performed in collaboration with Railway Engineering at the faculty CiTG and the obtained results and understanding help ProRail on their way to the ultimate goal of total avoidance of damage in rails.