Gianpietro Benedetti, chairman of Danieli, the leading Italian steel plant builder with global reach, was presented with the 2018 AIST (Association for Iron & Steel Technology) Tadeusz Sendzimir Memorial Medal in recognition of his leadership in steelmaking technology and plant building over four decades.

Mr Benedetti received the award at AISTech 2018's President's Awards Breakfast on Tuesday 8 May in Philadelphia, USA.

Mr Benedetti's leadership has been instrumental to a long series of technological breakthroughs for steel production, in particular for minimill operations. Among his many achievements have been the world's first endless casting-rolling plant for long products, the MI.DA Micromill process, and the DUE Danieli Universal Endless process for continuous thin-strip casting and rolling.

According to Giovanni Arvedi, president of Finarvedi SpA, Mr Benedetti 'followed an original path to technological development revealed in various applications in the long products sector, and also in the flat products sector, more particularly in the thin slab casting area.'

Randy Skagen, outgoing president of the AIST, noted in his citation at the awards ceremony that Mr Benedetti, through his perseverance, expertise and strategic vision, 'has guided the company to achieve global prominence by striving to lead the technological evolution of the steel industry'.

Mr Benedetti is the holder of numerous patents for steelmaking machines and processes. Over 80 inventions have been registered under his name.