Christopher C. Berndt is a Distinguished Professor with Swinburne University of Technology, where he is the director of the Australian Research Council Training Centre in surface engineering for advanced materials (SEAM). He has been with Swinburne since 2007 and is the founding professor of surface science and interface engineering.

Chris’ major discipline areas are materials engineering and manufacturing engineering with a sub-disciplinary expertise in the topics of ceramics, biomaterials, thick coatings, and thermal spray technology. He is considered a world authority in thermal spray technology.

Chris is the foundation editor and now Emeritus Editor of the Journal of Thermal Spray Technology. He has more than 550 publications, with an ‘H-index’ of 70 and more than 12,000 citations to his work. Chris’s employment history includes Monash University, Stony Brook University, where he remains an Adjunct Professor. He is also an honorary Adjunct Professor with the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar, India and was appointed Distinguished Professor with both the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad and IIT Madras, India.

Chris has received numerous accolades for his work including an “Honorary membership” for demonstrated professional commitment and long-life learning by ASM International, in 2022. Chris is especially proud of his students and postdoctoral fellows who have achieved professional prominence and earned good lives over the past 35 years.