Adrian Gerlich

Adrian Gerlich is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo and a key member of the Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research. He maintains affiliations with the Canadian Welding Association, American Welding Society, and Society of Manufacturing Engineers Canada.

His research emphasizes the physical metallurgy of welded components, with focus areas including:

• Friction stir welding of dissimilar materials
• Roll bonding and overlay welding
• Material characterization using quantitative electron microscopy
• Advanced manufacturing techniques

Recent publications highlight his work on welding metallurgy of high-strength steels and dissimilar metal joining for transportation applications, with over 60 journal papers and 25 conference papers to his credit. Current research trends include laser welding, microstructure control, and mechanical properties optimization in automotive contexts.

Courses Taught (2020-2024):

• BME 282 - Materials Science for Biomedical Engineers (2024)
• ME 115 - Structure and Properties of Materials (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023)
• ME 435 - Industrial Metallurgy (2021)
• ME 632 - Experimental Methods in Materials Engineering (2020-2024)
• MTE 111 - Structure and Properties of Materials (2020, 2022-2025)

Professor Gerlich actively accepts graduate students for research projects in welding and materials science.