STEEL TECH has the support and involvement of leading companies from the sector, such as: ARCELORMITTAL, ACEROS INOXIDABLES OLARRA, SIDENOR, ALFE CUTTING, ACERÍA DE ÁLAVA (GRUPO TUBACEX), CEIT, TECNALIA, IDOM, SARRALLE, SPRI, UNESID, SIDEREX and BEC.
These companies form part of the Scientific Committee, with professionals and experts with decision-making capacity in the field of technological innovation:
Members of the Scientific Committee
Juan José Laraudogoitia
R&D Director
SIDENOR
Juan José Laraudogoitia
Juan José Laraudogoitia. Industrial engineer from Bilbao School of Industrial Engineering, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).
On 1st October 1986, he started my employment relationship with Agrupación de Aceros Especiales, S.A., a company devoted to Research and Development for ACENOR S.A., now called SIDENOR INVESTIGACIÓN Y DESARROLLO S.A. and SIDENOR ACEROS ESPECIALES S.L., respectively.
He has been Director at SIDENOR I+D S.A. since 2009.
Chairman of the TGS3 Technical Group “Casting, Reheating and Direct Rolling” in the European Research Programme, RFCS, (Research Fund for Coal and Steel) from 2004 – 2013. Member of the SAG (Steel Advisory Group) since 2013.
FP6 Expert Candidature Module (Candidature Nº) EX2002B023768
Research Project Management focusing on the following areas of steelmaking in special steels via electric arc furnace, secondary metallurgy and continuous casting:
- Optimisation in the use of raw materials
- Design and process control in EAF, secondary metallurgy and continuous casting
Characterisation and quality improvement of semi-products and end products.
Pello Uranga
Materials and Manufacturing Department Deputy Director
CEIT
Pello Uranga
Pello Uranga is the Deputy Director of the Material and Manufacturing Division at CEIT and lecturer at Tecnun (University of Navarra). He is an engineer in materials (1998) and doctor in engineering (2002) from the University of Navarra. His research activity focuses on the thermo-mechanical processing and modelling of the micro-structural evolution of steel. He has published more than 150 technical papers in journals and international conferences, having received 5 international awards. He has also participated in more than 50 research projects, most of them industrial projects. He is an active member of professional associations, such as AIST (Association of Iron and Steel Technology) and TMS (The Mineral, Metals and Materials Society), as well as an evaluator for different European Commission programmes and university programmes for ANECA and ABET (USA).
Juan San José Olaguenaga
Sales Manager
ALFE CUTTING
Juan San José
Graduate in Physical Sciences from the UPV/EHU and MBA from the ESEUNE Business School. Over 20 years of experience in iron and steel and metal-mechanic sector. He started his professional career at SIDENOR I+D in the new product development department. He continued his professional career within the group at FORJANOR, a company devoted to the forging of parts for the automotive sector. At this stage, he carried out the functions of Production and Maintenance Director for at least 8 years. In his second professional stage at TECNALIA, he held diverse positions until he became Head of Business Development for the iron and steel sector. His objective was to develop innovation projects in the sector. He later became Sales Manager at SARRALLE, in the Iron and Steel Equipment Division. Currently, he holds the Sales Manager position at ALFE CUTTING, devoted to the manufacture of cutting tools for the iron and steel sector and services centres in the value chain.
Asier Vicente
Research Engineer
ArcelorMittal
Asier Vicente
Dr. Asier Vicente received the BEng degree on civil engineering in 2002 and in 2007 he received the MEng degree on Material engineering with Honors from the School of engineering of Bilbao and the MSc degree on industrial technologies by UNED in 2016 and in 2020 he got a PhD on his work “New methods for Ferrous Raw Materials Characterization in Electric Steelmaking”.
In 2002 he started at ArcelorMittal Sestao as steel mill shift manager. and in 2010 he moved to ArcelorMittal Basque Country R&D center, developing his work as principal investigator in the Electric steelmaking and Raw Materials characterization areas leading numerous projects in this field.
He also takes responsibilities in several global technical committees within ArcelorMittal taking the roll of leader in the Global R&D EAF program and acting as global coordinator of the Ferrous Scrap material management and Raw materials and Molten phases characterization Communities of specialists.
Pedro Corcuera
R&D Director
OLARRA
Pedro Corcuera
Industrial engineer from the Higher Technical School of Engineering of Bilbao. He began his professional career at the Acenor R&D Group. He was a researcher in the Product Department for 3 years, working on the development of steel for machining and cold forming. He carried out production tasks as Head of Hot Rolling at Acenor’s Larrondo plant for one year. In 1990, he joined the company’s Quality Department, which later became Aceros Inoxidables Olarra. Since then, he has been Quality Manager at Aceros inoxidables Olarra. Over the years, he has participated in many research projects related to the development of new qualities and process improvement. During this period, he has combined his responsibilities in the Quality Department with the management of the environment and energy area, as well as the IT Department at Olarra. As Quality Director at Olarra, he focuses on the development of long stainless steel products with advanced properties that meet new market requirements.
Gorka Rojo
Steelmaking Process & Technology Manager
IDOM
Gorka Rojo
Gorka Rojo is a Graduate in Physical Sciences from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and has an MBA from the European Business School of Barcelona and more than 15 years’ experience in the iron and steel metallurgy sector. He began his professional career in the SIDENOR ACEROS ESPECIALES S.L. Group and moved through different areas, such as R&D, Raw Materials, Steelworks and Investments. In this stage, he held diverse positions of responsibility in the field of production and in the management of strategic projects, focusing on process improvement and optimisation. In his current position at IDOM – Metals&Minerals, he is the Head of Technology and Iron and Steel Processes, where he coordinates international projects to increase productivity, provide strategic and process consultancy and innovation. He has several publications in journals and at international conferences and he works as a technical adviser for scientific dissemination media.
Roberto Castelo
Technical Secretariat of PLATEA
UNESID
Roberto Castelo
Roberto Castelo is a Technical and Innovation Expert at the Spanish Association of Steel Producers, UNESID, and Head of the Technical Secretariat of the Spanish Steel Technological Platform, PLATEA. He is an industrial engineer, holds a diploma in business management and is an expert in international R&D&I project promotion and management.
He promotes R&D&I projects related to the iron and steel sector from the emergence of the initial idea to the presentation of proposals and results. He is constantly driving new projects to increase the quality of steel, extend the solutions and features offered by steel in order to address the new challenges facing societies and increase the skills, safety and protection of workers. To do so, he searches for national and international calls open to the public in which he is able to address proposals and at the same time guide and help coordinators and other participants in the process of drawing up proposals. He also facilitates inter-communication between participants in the initial stages of training of the different consortia, promotes proposals between potential interested parties and organises several workshops and seminars to showcase the results of the projects.
Amaia Martínez
Head of Technology
SPRI
Amaia Martínez
Amaia Martínez Muro, industrial engineer and MBA from UPV/EHU. Head of Technology at SPRI, the Basque Government’s Business Development Agency, whose objective is to support and boost the Basque business sector, fostering its competitiveness and positioning in the global market.
The Technology Department at SPRI is responsible for the development and management of programmes and initiatives to support industrial R&D&I activity, as well as essential and industrial research that is undertaken in collaboration by the agents of the Basque Science, Technology and Innovation Network, contributing to the development and deployment of the Science and Technology Strategy, which is set out in the PCTI 2030.
She has more than 10 years of experience in the definition, implementation, communication, monitoring and evaluation of technological and business development strategies within the framework of the Basque Government’s competitiveness policies and, particularly now, in the field of the Basque RIS3 specialisation strategy and the coordination of initiatives for their deployment based on public-private governance and their international deployment.
She also acts as the head liaison with SIDEREX within the framework of the Basque Country’s Cluster Policy, whose main objective is to increase the competitiveness of companies through cooperation.
Leire Elguren
Directora Marketing
Sarralle
Leire Elguren
Licenciada en Derecho por la UPV/EHU de Donostia, San Sebastián. Inició su carrera profesional en el Grupo Sarralle hace 20 años, Grupo empresarial que cuenta con 5 Líneas de Negocio dedicados a realizar proyectos llave en mano a nivel internacional en los sectores de Siderometalúrgia, Medioambiente y Energía. Tras haber trabajado en distintos departamentos dentro del Grupo Sarralle, actualmente es la Directora de Marketing y Comunicación del Grupo y Coordinadora de los Departamentos Comerciales de Steel Melting Plant, Rolling Mill, Processing Lines, Environment & Energy y Workshop&Storage Systems.
Cristina Bilbao
Head of Innovation
SIDEREX
Cristina Bilbao
Cristina Bilbao is Material Science Engineer from the Faculty of Engineering of Bilbao, University of the Basque Country (2012) and Technical Mining Engineer from the University of Mining Engineering of Barakaldo, University of the Basque Country (2010).
Between 2013-2017, she has worked as a researcher at CEIT Research Center, within the Materials and Manufacturing division in the group dedicated to the development of powder metallurgy steels, combining at the same time industrial projects with her PhD in “Sintering and dilatometry of powder metallurgical steels for shock absorber parts “. Additionally, she has participated in conferences and has publications in the sector.
Previously, she worked as a laboratory technician in the Metal department of Georg-Simon-Ohm University in Nurnberg-Germany, making tests on aluminum alloys and failure determination in engine pistons for her Final Degree Project. Additionally, she has participated in conferences, and has publications in the sector.
Cristina is currently the Head of Innovation at SIDEREX (Cluster Association of Steelworks).
Borja Peña
Responsable de la plataforma tecnológica siderúrgica
TECNALIA
Borja Peña
Borja Peña Quintero, Ingeniero Industrial por la UPV/EHU e Ingeniero de Materiales por la UP/EHU, con catorce años de experiencia, inició su carrera profesional en Fundación LABEIN, que años más tarde paso a ser Fundación TECNALIA llevando a cabo el desarrollo y coordinación de proyectos de I + D + i locales, nacionales y europeos que abordan todas las etapas de la siderurgia desde la transformación de la materia prima hasta el producto final. En la actualidad responsable de desarrollo tecnológico del sector siderúrgico en TECNALIA. evaluando los requisitos tecnológicos en función de las capacidades de Tecnalia. A lo largo de los años de experiencia ha adquirido capacidades en: análisis metalográfico; caracterización mecánica de materiales; diseño y fabricación de aleaciones, incluso en escala semiindustrial; puesta en marcha de dispositivos de fabricación de aleaciones metálicas; ensayo y tratamiento térmicos y termomecánicos; experiencia en adquisiciones de perfiles de temperatura en el campo industrial; Simulación FEM & CFD aplicada en procesos siderúrgicos.