Southwest Research Institute^® (SwRI^®) News

SwRI's Burkhardt, Sablik named ASNT Fellows

San Antonio, Texas -- May 15, 2003 -- Gary Burkhardt and Dr. Martin Sablik, staff scientists in the Applied Physics Division at Southwest Research Institute^® (SwRI^®)  have been named Fellows of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing. They will be formally recognized as Fellows at the ASNT Fall Conference, to be held Oct. 13-17 in Pittsburgh.

Burkhardt and Sablik were recognized for their significant accomplishments in the field of nondestructive testing and for their service to the ASNT. Burkhardt has been an active member of the ASNT for more than 25 years; Sablik, 22. Both have held several officer positions in the South Texas Section of ASNT.

Burkhardt came to SwRI in 1974 after completing his undergraduate studies at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. He has more than 29 years of experience in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) experimental research and development, particularly in electromagnetic inspection methods. He has been involved with the application of nonlinear harmonics methods for measurement of stress, including the detection and characterization of mechanical damage in gas transmission pipelines and measurement of torque in rotating shafts.
He has developed unique eddy current probes for inspection of aircraft structures, gas turbine engine components and steam-generator tubing. Probe designs include the use of orthogonal-axis coils and sensors based on the giant magnetoresistive effect. He is currently developing a collapsible, remote-field eddy current probe for inspecting pipelines with internal restrictions that prevent the use of conventional inspection methods.

Burkhardt holds a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics from Southwest Texas State University. He is the author of more than 60 publications concerned with NDE and has contributed chapters to the ASM International Metals Handbook. He has been awarded five U.S. patents and has four patents pending. Burkhardt holds a Level III certification from ASNT in eddy current testing. In addition to ASNT, he is a member of the American Physical Society. Before joining SwRI in 1980, Sablik was an associate professor of physics at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Rutherford, N.J.

Sablik is a theoretical physicist with broad experience in pure and applied physics. He has developed models to explain the effect of uniaxial and biaxial stress on magnetic hysteresis, magnetostriction hysteresis, Barkhausen noise and other magnetic and magnetoelastic properties in steels, rare earth intermetallics and amorphous metallic glasses. He has applied such models to various magnetic NDE techniques. He has conducted structural vibration computer studies and has developed computer models for finding eddy currents induced in metallic materials. Most recently, Sablik has been modeling the effects of microstructure on magnetic properties, with application to monitoring properties of steel as the steel is being manufactured.

Sablik is the recipient of an Imagineer Award from the Mind Science Foundation, awarded in 1989, and is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

He holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Cornell University, a master's degree in physics from the University of Kentucky, and a doctorate in physics from Fordham University. He is the author of more than 100 papers and of more than 100 technical presentations and holds one U.S. patent. He coauthored chapters on magnetic NDE in the ASNT NDE Handbook and in The Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He was recently named an editor of the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics. In addition to ASNT and IEEE, he is a member of the American Physical Society and the American Geophysical Union.

For more information, contact Deborah Deffenbaugh, Communications Department, (210) 522-2046, Fax (210) 522-3547, PO Drawer 28510, San Antonio, TX 78228-0510.