Dr. Ruiz-Aparicio has over 17 years of professional experience in the titanium, niobium, and ferrous industries, including 8 years with ATI as Manager of Market and Product Development for Aerospace Applications, Flat-rolled Products division. Dr. Ruiz-Aparicio has Master’s and PhD degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Florida and University of Pittsburgh, respectively, after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the National University of Mexico.

Tom Fisk has 38 years of experience developing processes for welded tubing using over 100 material types from A286 to zirconium, meeting the requirements of more than 900 different customers. Processes include net size, draw size, and redraw to various shapes, as well as hot sizing of titanium and titanium alloys. As Senior Planner for Valley Metals (VM), Tom is responsible for determining all specification and customer requirements and ensuring that these requirements are met. Every space shuttle main engine (SSME) has launched with tubing fabricated by VM. Tom is currently involved with planning parts that will be used for the next space launch systems (SLS) programs. ATI contacted Valley Metals in early 2013 to begin industrial trials to determine the manufacturing capabilities and cost effectiveness of using ATI 425 Alloy. Tom has been working with Dr Luis Ruiz-Aparicio of ATI in this endeavor and believes that this material should rival or even replace 6Al-4V titanium in the future.