George F. Vander Voort, director of research and technology for Buehler Ltd. in Lake Bluff, Ill., received the 2006 Joseph R. Vilella Award for his revision and rewriting of Volume 9, Metallography and Microstructure, of the ASM Handbook. Committee E04 on Metallography cited Vander Voort's excellent work on the publication as well as his many years of dedicated service to ASTM International. The award recognizes outstanding contributions in publications about metallography and is intended to stimulate research and further encourage the extension of knowledge in the field.

Vander Voort lives in Wadsworth, Illinois.

An ASTM International member since 1979, Vander Voort is affiliated with Committees E04, A01 on Steel, Stainless Steel and Related Alloys and E28 on Mechanical Testing. He has served as the chairman of E04 as well as its second and first vice chair, and he has been chair of two symposia. For his contributions to ASTM International, Vander Voort has received the Award of Merit, the Anthony DeBellis Memorial Award and the L.L. Wyman Memorial Award. Vander Voort also was chair of Subcommittee E04.14 on Quantitative Metallography for many years; during that time he advanced standards work for manual and automated quantitative metallographic measurements. Since 1989, Vander Voort has been the U.S. representative to Subcommittee 7 on tests other than chemical and mechanical of Technical Committee 17 on Steel, a group in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Outside ASTM International, Vander Voort has been active in ASM International, including service on its board of trustees and on a number of committees, and in the International Metallographic Society, where he has been president and an officer, a member of the board of directors and general chairman of four of their annual meetings. He is also a member of the International Society for Stereology, the Royal Microscopical Society (UK), the Polish Society for Stereology, the Deutsche Geschellshaft für Materialkunde, the Microscopy Society of America, and the State Microscopy Society of Illinois.

Author of more than 250 publications, including Metallography: Principles and Practice, and Buehler's Guide to Materials Preparation, Vander Voort holds six patents. In his career, which has included positions with Carpenter Technology Corp., Homer Research Laboratories/Bethlehem Steel, and the Bethlehem plant of Bethlehem Steel, Vander Voort focuses on physical, mechanical and process metallurgy, specializing in metallography and failure analysis.

A graduate of Drexel University with a B.S. in metallurgical engineering, Vander Voort holds an M.S. in metallurgy and materials science from Lehigh University.

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