Resume
     Professor Yoshinori Hirata graduated from the Welding Department in School of Engineering, Osaka University in 1974. After completion of the master’s program, he worked as a welding engineer for pressure vessel production in Hitachi Zosen Shipbuilding and Engineering Company. In 1978 he returned to Osaka University. And he was engaged in education and research as a professor in the laboratory of materials processing physics during 2004-2016.
     Prof. Hirata has concentrated on welding physics, one of the fundamental disciplines in science and technology of welding and joining during his career as a researcher. He has dedicated himself to understanding of welding phenomena associated with gas shielded arc welding process in order to realize excellent welding quality with high productivity. He has conducted highly outstanding and pioneering researches on arc plasma, metal transfer and weld pool phenomena, which have impacted on the evolution of practical arc welding process.
     Prof. Hirata has greatly contributed to IIW activities as the Chairman of IIW SG212, The Physics of Welding, from 2006 till 2011, as a TMB member from 2008 till 2011, as a Board Director from 2013 till 2015 and as the Chairman of IIW Commission XII, Arc Welding Processes and Production Systems, from 2011. And he has been taking the leadership for evolution of welding process with more reliability and higher productivity.

Topic：Understanding of Welding Phenomena of GMAW to Numerical Simulation of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing
     [Abstract] GMAW process is widely used in various production sectors because it provides high deposition rate and/or it is suitable for automatic/robotic welding. These years, high performance welding machine has been available, which enables fast and precise control of welding current and wire feeding. But GMAW processes have been still complex phenomena in which the behavior of gas metal arc with metal transfer are influenced by many variables: material, groove geometry, welding position, welding current and so on. Recent progress of visualization and simulation technology in welding process has been making possible to observe, measure and analyze welding phenomena with high resolution in both of time and space. Change from qualitative understanding to quantitative prediction will result in evolution of welding process with more reliability and higher productivity.　And it has been leading to numerical simulation of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing process.