Matco Employee's Biographies

Dr. Zamanzadeh's degrees include a B.S. and M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from California State University, as well as a Ph.D. in Materials Science from Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Zamanzadeh joined the oil industry upon completion of his doctoral work in 1980. He served as a senior corrosion specialist in NIOC during 1980-1985.

In 1985 he joined Carnegie Mellon University in the capacity of a Post Doctoral Research Associate under a fellowship grant from IBM. In 1987, he joined Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory, which is a Division of PSI. Before becoming Manager of the Metallurgical Division, he was Materials Engineer and Senior Corrosion Specialist in Metallurgy Department at PSI. In 1993, he joined Matco Associates Inc., a corrosion consulting/testing engineering firm head quartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Zamanzadeh functions as the primary consultant and principal investigator on all fracture, corrosion, and materials failure analysis related projects. He has performed numerous materials damage investigations, including those from the aerospace, chemical, construction and power industries. He specializes in corrosion and failure analysis of various materials, both metallic and nonmetallic.| Dr. Zamanzadeh has been called on many times to serve as an expert witness in a court of law.

Dr. Zamanzadeh is a trustee of NACE in the Pittsburgh Chapter. Dr. Zamanzadeh has lectured and taught frequently on corrosion science, non-metallic materials, failure analysis (fracture mechanics), coatings and materials selection for universities (University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and Penn State) technical societies (NACE, ASM and ASTM) and industrial plants (IBM Corporation).

He has organized and lectured many annual seminars on welding, materials selection, heat treatment of steels, corrosion and failure analysis. In addition, Dr. Zamanzadeh has been an invited speaker for EPRI's (Electrical Power Research Industry) Corrosion and Degradation Conference for the past two years.

During 1990-1999 a number of long term research projects were undertaken by Dr. Zamanzadeh under different grants. They are as follows: the development and evaluation of coatings for corrosion applications, fractography of aerospace materials, electrochemical corrosion evaluation of implants, applications of coatings to increase fatigue resistance and corrosion resistance in natural environments; brazing and welding of metallic materials; characterization of construction materials using surface techniques; hot dip coating processes; surface segregation due to gas absorption in binary materials using AES; rubber lined carbon steel piping; novel accelerated tests for reliability/corrosion studies in coated materials; and the development of protective coatings for metals.

Dr. Zamanzadeh holds 21 patents, and is the author of 58 papers involving failure analysis, corrosion testing, materials and coatings. He is also the principle investigator for Windows Software "Cat-Pro" on cathodic protection. Currently, he is in the process of writing a book on failure analysis.

Mr. Gretz has a bachelor degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh awarded in 1957. In 1962, he completed the examinations and was certified as a Registered Professional Engineer by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Mr. Gretz became an Advanced Class Amateur Radio Operator in 1968. While in college, he was President of the Metallurgy Class and served as a student Metallurgist at U.S. Steel's Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, plant in the summer working on problems with cold rolled stainless steel.

Upon graduation in 1957, Mr. Gretz joined the Universal Cyclops Steel Corporation and served at the Duquesne, Pennsylvania, plant for twenty-three years in the Quality Assurance Department. His experience includes Blast Furnace iron making, Open Hearth steel melting, Vacuum degassing, Vacuum carbon deoxidization and Vacuum argon rinsing. Mr. Gretz also has experience in the provisioning, pouring, heating and rolling of steel ingots to billets, blooms, slabs and rounds in various grades of carbon steel, alloy steel, silicon steel and stainless steel. His steel finishing experience includes conditioning of steel, rolling of steel to bars, inspection, ultrasonic testing and heat treatment of steel in electric, gas-fired and induction furnaces as well as air, oil and water quenching.

While at the Duquesne Plant of U.S. Steel, he established and taught a 16 hour night course entitled, "Practical Metallurgy of Iron and Steel" for 10 years. This course was for young graduate engineers who did not have metallurgical degrees. He was transferred to the Clairton, Pennsylvania, plant where he was responsible for all quality control functions involved in the rolling, inspection and testing of light structural steel. Subsequent to this, he was transferred to the Homestead, Pennsylvania, plant where he was involved in the inspection and physical testing of steel plates up to 100 inches wide and heavy structural steel beams and pilings.

Upon retirement from U.S. Steel, he joined Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory as a Senior Metallurgical Engineer. P.T.L. later merged with Professional Service Industries, Inc. where he served in the Metallurgical Department, the Physical Testing Department and in Business Development. His experience includes failure analysis, metallurgical process evaluation, physical testing, quality control evaluation, corrosion analysis, scanning electron microscopy along with energy discharge X-ray spectroscopy, and customer contacts. He also has extensive experience on construction materials damaged by fire or by corrosion. Since his second retirement (from PSI) in 1994, he joined Matco Associates, Incorporated, where he serves as Vice President - Materials Engineering.

Mr. Gretz has been a member of the American Society of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers since 1956 and has been designated a Senior Member. In addition, he holds a 25 Year Certificate from the American Society for Metals. He has served as lecturer for yearly held seminars on metallurgy, failure analysis and heat treatment of steels. During his career, he has co-authored papers involving heat treatment of stainless steel, the pouring of steel, slag control, corrosion, failure analysis and metallurgy.

Edward S. Larkin, Manager of Matco's Metallurgical Laboratory, has over twenty years of experience performing failure analyses. He has examined a wide variety of product failures and has extensive experience with metallography and scanning electron microscopy of materials. His projects have included metallurgical investigations of jet engines and landing gears, coatings, PVC pipes, human implants, transmission towers, computer components as well as many, many others. Mr. Larkin has been called on many times to serve as an expert witness in a court of law.

In addition to performing metallurgical failure analyses of materials and applications, Mr. Larkin has recently completed a series of courses in petrographic analysis. His projects include the evaluation of concrete, aggregates and concrete slabs. Mr. Larkin also has experience in QC Testing and QA Requirements for nuclear applications. This includes equipment calibration, performance certification and written documentation.

Upon graduation from Pennsylvania State University in 1979 with a B.S. in Metallurgy, Mr. Larkin accepted a position at Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory, which was a Division of PSI. He functioned as a Materials Engineer and Corrosion Specialist in the Metallurgy Department at PSI for 19 years. In 1998 Mr. Larkin accepted a position at Matco Associates as the Manager of the Metallurgical Division.

Mr. Larkin is currently the Chairman of the Pittsburgh section of NACE. He has also held the position of Vice Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary.

Dr. Bayer's degrees include B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry (1980, 1983) from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Bayer's graduate research in chemistry focused on rare earth-transition metal hydrides. He also obtained M.S. degrees in Energy Resources (1983) and Metallurgical Engineering (1992) from the University of Pittsburgh, where his graduate research in metallurgical engineering focused on oxidation- resistant coatings for carbon-carbon composites.

Most recently, Dr. Bayer obtained his Ph.D. in Engineering (1999) from Kennedy-Western University's School and Engineering and Computer Science, where his doctoral research focused on the development of a chromium-silicon co-diffusion coating system for high-temperature and aqueous corrosion applications.

Early in his career Dr. Bayer worked at Energetics, Inc., Columbia, Maryland (1986-1988), and at Princeton Economic Research, Inc., Silver Spring, Maryland (1988-1989), providing technology assessment, proposal review, and R&D program management support to diverse U. S. Department of Energy Office of Conservation and Renewable Energy R&D projects, primarily materials- and chemical-related.

Dr. Bayer worked from 1993 to 2001 as Technical Manager at Alon Surface Technologies, Inc., Leechburg, Pennsylvania. At Alon, he held primary responsibility for the development of four new commercial diffusion and thermal spray coating products and processes, as well as support to production, quality, and technical marketing efforts. Dr. Bayer's industrial research efforts at Alon have resulted in 4 U.S. patents granted, with 2 others pending. He has also worked from 1990 to 2001 as an independent contractor and consultant, providing technical services in a variety of areas.

These areas include SBIR proposal review, technology assessments, thermo-chemical modeling and process development, patent application preparation and other technical writing, and consulting on development and application of diffusion coatings.

In his current position as Senior Materials Engineer at Matco Associates, which he began in 2001, Dr. Bayer is responsible for conducting a variety of corrosion studies and failure analyses, as well as developing and managing the company's business efforts in high-temperature materials and coatings.

Dr. Bayer has authored or co-authored 25 technical papers and book chapters, and holds 4 U. S. Patents with 2 others pending, as discussed above. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, ASM International, NACE International, and the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania.

Mr. Paul T. Lovejoy is a Consultant for Matco's Metallurgical Division. Paul has over 30 years of experience at a major stainless steel producer working in areas of welding, mill processing, and failure analysis for welding and fabrication reasons. He has written many failure reports and visited many stainless customers to review problems.

Paul received his BES degree in Mechanics from John Hopkins University in 1961. He has also received his Masters from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a degree in Metallurgical Engineering. Throughout his education, Paul gained valuable experience from the Knolls Atomic Power Lab. Upon receiving his Masters in 1966, Paul accepted the position as Research Metallurgist at Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corporation.

During that time he used metallurgy and mechanical engineering skills to produce stainless steels. After 1977, Paul supervised 9 engineers and technicians in Materials Processing. Until 1998, Paul coordinated manufacturing excellence in the Leechburg Finishing Plant and held position as Research Associate. His tasks included investigating welding, application and fabrication of stainless steel problems. At that time, Paul worked with both customers and plant personal.

Between 1999 and 2000, Paul traveled to Shanghai, China on four monthly trips and provided advice on stainless steel issues and visited with Chinese customers to discuss use of precision stainless steel products. Currently, Paul works as a Project Engineer who specializes in Stainless Steel Application & Failures.

Dr. Donald L. Gibbon is a metallographic and microcharacterization specialist with extensive experience in defining problems and providing analytical approaches to their solution. Problems that Dr. Gibbon has addressed have been in a broad range of fields including reverse-osmosis filtration, electric power generation, many surface-preparation applications (cleaning/phosphatizing, etc.), deposit analysis, biofilm studies, corrosion control. Dr. Gibbon also has extensive experience in the paper industry, and has developed and implemented a range of microscopy techniques of special value to that industry.

Don was also a Research Fellow, and has obtained much experience in the management and operation of a materials microcharacterization laboratory for a major industrial energy and resource conservation company for 20 years. Don is adept at SEM, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, electron and x-ray diffraction, TEM and light microscopes in an integrated approach to problem solving. In addition, Don utilizes XPS to supplement other testing techniques, primarily for organic materials.

Jay Mehta, Senior Metallurgical Engineer has over 20 years experience in all aspects of stainless steels such as metallurgical, production, quality control, customer technical service, R&D, trouble shooting, inquiries, orders, specifications, product, process and finish. The areas include:

Compositions - familiarity with various grades, material evaluation

Processing - hot & cold, melting, continuous casting, welding aspects

Properties - mechanical and corrosion

Metallurgical - product, process, applications and failure analysis

Manufacturing - excellent quality, yield and cost

Sales & marketing - technical development / presentations

Problem solving - manufacturing and field applications

Developed & improved stainless steel grades, which include 409, 439, 441, 446mod, 305, 347H, 21-6-9, 349, 2205, other austenitic and ferritic stainless steels, E-4, 409Ni, 431, and precipitation hardening grades such as 17-4, 15-5 and 17-7.

Provided chemistry, processing (melting, casting, slab handling, conditioning, hot rolling, annealing & pickling) parameters, properties and application guidelines.

Acquired weldability and weld cracking susceptibility experience for pipe & tube product. Familiar with welding processes such as High Frequency Resistance welding, TIG, Plasma and Laser welding. Areas include: chemistry ranges, solidification and welding, effect of minor elements and inclusions, weld cracking, corrosion, physical metallurgy and literature information.

Defined cause and effect relationship and optimized processing to improve surface quality, yield, cost and customer satisfaction. These include surface laminations, slivers, pin slivers, scabs (mechanical damage), cracked slab scab and black streaks.

Experienced with grade selection, properties and uses in pipe & tubing, rerollers, cookware, forming, wheel covers, physical & mechanical properties, heat treatment, finish, surface quality, corrosion, high temperature materials, oxidation, welding, etc.

Developed expertise in product development, cause-effect determination, troubleshooting, failure analysis, experimental design and evaluation in solving a variety of materials / environment / fabrication / finishing situations.

Provided on time guidelines for various inquiries grade selection, chemistry, properties, corrosion, finishing, forming, welding, etc. Compiled a ready reference library of grades, chemistry, specifications, properties, data sheets, literature references and text books to help answer many questions.

Jay Mehta held various positions at Crucible Steel and J&L Specialty Steel.

Jay Mehta received his B. S. in Metallurgical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India. He received M. S. Metallurgical Engineering from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.

Jay has published technical papers, held many technical seminars and holds two patents.

Mr. Kozlowski joined the Matco team in the winter of 2001. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing he saw nothing but turmoil in the job market. His turmoil quickly turned into panic, just weeks before he was going to resign himself to moving back to his parents house he received his saving grace. Matco Associates was in need of a trainable lab technician, and Peter fit the bill perfectly.

From his first day on the job, Peter has shown nothing but motivation to learn about all aspects of Materials and Corrosion. He has already worked on numerous types of jobs, and has become quite proficient in the metallurgical field. Peter is quite ostentatious when it comes to photography, from his very first jobs he gave an extra effort in order to take perfectly focused pictures with tantalizing contrast and clarity. After mastering the art of "As-Received" photography, he then moved onto sample prep for metallurgical investigations. The Buhler cut-off saw has become like a third hand to him, and the Struers Abrapol grinding and polishing unit his best friend. From cast iron steel to soft copper and bronze, Peter has developed the skills necessary to be considered an above average metallurgical technician.

Though the metallurgical world enticed Peter greatly, he still wanted to be able to do more in the Matco world. His next great learning adventure came on the Scanning Electron Microscope. He learned that from the Tungsten Filament flew millions of electrons at ungodly speeds at the sample that was in a vacuum not quite unlike outer space. Since this time Peter has also been trained to use the Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy, and has worked with such samples as failed plastics and corroded steel.

Another aspect of the Matco world that Peter is trained to perform in is using the Fourier Transform Infrared Refraction unit. He has used this to analyze several different organic compounds that could not be analyzed with EDS.

With the scientific aspects of the job under his belt, Peter was handed another task to try his hand at. This task was the internet marketing campaign. Peter manages Matco's internet marketing campaign as well he provided insight and feedback into the development of the new Matco home page. At this year's Christmas party, Peter received the Walter Gretz award, this award is given to an outstanding employee who goes above and beyond the normal duties of his job. Mr. Kozlowski is planning to go back to school to receive a Bachelor of Science degree and he hopes to one day gain a PhD.

His hobbies include, hiking, mounting biking, and photography.

Matthew Dodds, a graduate of the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics, has been in the Non - Destructive Testing field for the past 5 years. During the past 5 years he has been involved in numerous projects involving radiography, ultrasonic, liquid penetrate, and magnetic particle testing. Matt has also performed overall thickness measurements and coating thickness measurements on bridges, buildings, and power plant piping systems. Matt also has a great knowledge of welding processes and procedures. Currently Matt is attending Point Park college for Mechanical Engineering.

Since September of 2002, Carrie has shown more than just expertise in all aspects of Matco, she is motivated and eager to learn. She goes beyond the role as lab technician and exceeds at any task. Carrie has proficiency in Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy, the Fourier Transform Infrared Reaction unit, Mita Supervisor and Morale Officer. Going into her fifth year the University of Pittsburgh, Carrie will obtain a Bachelors of Science degree in Materials Engineering with a minor in Mechanical Design in 2004.

Along with being a college student, Carrie participated in the Co-op program at Pitt and was employed with Titanium Metals Corporation (TIMET) for two semesters. Her skills included microstructural analysis, research/data collection and organization, writing lab reports and technical papers and gained wide spread knowledge of the titanium industry. Carrie has also participated in Pitt's Study Abroad program in Australia.

Carrie is the Vice President of the American Society of Materials (ASM)/ The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (TSM), student chapter at the University of Pittsburgh. In her free time, she enjoys playing softball.

Dave Gardner started working at Matco Assoicates, Inc in August of 1991. For over ten years Dave has worked on fiber optics, petrographically, micros, and viewed different elements on the microscope. He also grinds and polishes micros in the metallographically lab. Dave Gardner's position is metallurgicafully lab technician and he is the only person to ever hold this position. In his spare time Dave likes to fish, hunt, go camping work on various different classic cars, and woodworking.

Stephanie LeVato is a lab technician at Matco Assoicates Inc. Stephanie starting working at Matco in August of 2001. Stephanie is a full time student attending Carlow College, when she graduates is will receive a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. In her spare time, Stephanie works at Matco. At Matco Stephanie works on metallurgy with Dave Gardner, sample preparation for analysis, taking and receive photographs, acquiring and inserting images, and spectra from the scanning electron microscope.

• Click here for our online Sample Identification/Submittal Form.
• Click here to contact us.