Congratulations to Dr. Erik J. Hilinski for being named Engineer of the Year at the CWIEME Global Awards held on Wednesday, June 21, 2017, during the CWIEME Berlin expo. The award honors an exceptional individual who has demonstrated excellence in technical design skills, problem solving and project delivery.

For 21 years, Dr. Hilinski has advanced the field of electrical steel materials engineering by developing low-core loss CRML grades in the U.S., guiding development of non-grain oriented electrical steel grades in Slovakia, developing new electrical steel suppliers and supporting customers’ material application. As Senior Director, Technology at Tempel, Dr. Hilinski’s engineering expertise and technical leadership has yielded material purchasing savings per quarter and contributed to millions of dollars in new business in the past four years.

Throughout his career, Dr. Hilinski has advanced the industry by presenting his research findings worldwide at 12 conferences and authoring or co-authoring 21 published papers about electrical steel properties, processing and performance. Dr. Hilinski has shared his expertise by investing in future engineers and contributing to the electrical steel community having served as a project leader for the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Interprofessional Projects Program, which matched teams of university students with a participating company (Tempel) to help model aspects of energy-efficient motors. He also served on the Organizing and Advisory Committees and as Conference Chairman for the Properties and Applications of Magnetic Materials Conference (from 1999–2006), a forerunner to the current WMM Conference.

In addition to Dr. Hilinski winning the award, Tempel was also a finalist in two other categories: Outstanding Contribution: A Lifelong Commitment To Industry – Dr. Gwynne Johnston and Global Outreach Award - Beyond the Factory Floor: Tempel Chennai.