Tunes received the prize for his research and leading role in the development of aluminium alloys with high-radiation resistance amid for space exploration and extraterrestrial settlement in extreme environments. “Metallurgy is the key science to enable the human endeavour in space. Here in Leoben, our research is advancing metallurgy to enable future civilisations to further explore the deep space and to live in extraterrestrial worlds”, explains Tunes.
Aluminium alloys for the next phase of space travel
The award is accompanied by the publication of Tunes’s authored perspective review article“The Legacy and Future of Aluminium Alloys: Space Exploration and Extraterrestrial Settlement” in the special edition of the ACS Materials Au journal for the “Rising Stars of Materials Science of 2025”. In the publication, the physicist highlights the challenges that the next phase of space exploration will bring to the field of aluminium alloys. These include radiation, extreme temperature fluctuations, micrometeoroid impacts, hydrogen embrittlement and numerous other material stresses. The scientist describes how aluminium metallurgy needs to be reinvented so that materials can be optimised specifically for the deep space and extraterrestrial conditions.
Find the full article here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsmaterialsau.5c00139
About the person
Matheus A. Tunes earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2012. After completing his master’s degree in materials science and metallurgy in 2015, he wrote his dissertation at the University of Huddersfield in the UK and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA before joining the Technical University of Leoben as a postdoctoral researcher in 2019. After serving the Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) as a Director’s Fellow for three years, he returned to Leoben. Since September 2023, he has been an assistant professor at the TU Leoben and leader of the [X-MAT] team at the Chair of Nonferrous Metallurgy.
The [X-MAT] team conducts multidisciplinary research at the interface of physics, chemistry, materials science and metallurgy. Ass.-Prof. Tunes’s research focuses both on understanding the fundamental mechanisms driving material deterioration in extreme environments involving the synergistic action of driving forces such as irradiation, high temperatures, corrosion, hydrogen or hypersonic conditions. The team also has an active line on the discovery of new materials that are resistant to extreme conditions through advanced synthesis and characterization techniques.
Contact:
Ass.-Prof. Matheus A. Tunes, BSc MSc PhD MInstP
Chair of Nonferrous Metallurgy
Technical University of Leoben
phone.: +43 3842 402 – 5236
e-mail: matheus.tunes(at)unileoben.ac.at
website: https://x-mat.unileoben.ac.at
