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Nanocrystalline metals (average grain size < ~ 100 nm) burst upon the scene some 25 years ago with promises of great new properties. While some of these promises have yet to be realized, nanocrystalline metals have provided unparalleled opportunities to examine the behavior of dislocations and other methods of plastic deformation under conditions in which it had been believed that dislocation activity would be suppressed. Studies of the internal structure and mechanical behavior of this interesting class of metals will be described, with emphasis on the influence of stress, both monotonic and cyclic, on their structure and strength.

Professor Emerita Julia Weertman received her BS, MS and DSc in Physics from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University. She is a Fellow of ASM International (1988), TMS (1992), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1997). She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1988 for exceptional research on failure mechanisms in high-temperature alloys. Among her other honors are The Materials Research Society Von Hippel Award (2003), TMS Leadership Award (1996), SWE Distinguished Engineering Educator Award (1989) and SWE's highest honor, the Achievement Award (1991). She has served as a member of the National Research Council's National Materials Advisory Board from 1999 to the present.